Scope
Description
The provision of 26 Fame and 6 Orbis licences for various teams within the Department.
Contract 1
Supplier
Contract value
- £193,416 excluding VAT
- £232,099.20 including VAT
Above the relevant threshold
Earliest date the contract will be signed
24 December 2025
Contract dates (estimated)
- 27 December 2025 to 26 December 2026
- 1 year
Main procurement category
Goods
CPV classifications
- 48600000 - Database and operating software package
Participation
Particular suitability
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME)
Other information
Conflicts assessment prepared/revised
Yes
Procedure
Procedure type
Direct award
Direct award justification
Additional or repeat goods, services or works - extension or partial replacement
This justification is provided under regulation section 41, schedule 5, para 7 permitting direct award where:
• The contract concerns the supply of goods, services, or works by the existing supplier as an extension to, or partial replacement of, existing goods, services, or works, and
• (a) A change in supplier would result in the contracting authority receiving goods, services, or works that are different from, or incompatible with, the existing provision, and
• (b) The difference or incompatibility would result in disproportionate technical difficulties in operation or maintenance.
1. Critical Business Need and Unique Functionality
• FAME and Orbis licences platforms under Moody's provide comprehensive data on UK and overseas companies. Their platform offer extensive features to support Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) and the Company Law and Governance (CLG) critical day to day analysis including access to a wide high-quality dataset, the easy-to-use interface, and the ability to download and manipulate the dataset most effectively to support both teams pace of work.
• Both OPSS and CLG are highly dependent on the Moody's Fame and Orbis platforms for their core analytical and policy work. OPSS uses the tool as a key data source for information and intelligence products, supporting its role as the national consumer product regulator. The data enables OPSS to analyse business information, looking at business information to help analyse entities and draw links between entities/directorship and businesses, so is used very regularly. OPSS uses this data to understand the company directorship information to take regulatory action with businesses, manufacturers, entities and supply chains.
• CLG relies on Fame/Orbis for its ability to scrape company reporting information and provides the ability to query large volumes of company reporting information from Companies House. The system's batch search capability (e.g., querying 10,000 companies at once) and advanced multi-criteria search functions are essential for CLG's data analysis and policy work. For example, using Boolean searches, you can identify from the total register (c. 5m companies) all of the financial data available in one go. Moodys licences also allow the criteria to be tuned to extract specific company subsets e.g. the set of large companies by Companies Act definition.
Technical Compatibility and Disproportionate Difficulties
• Switching to a different supplier would result in the provision of data and tools that are incompatible with existing analytical processes and workflows. The risk of data incompatibility and the loss of functionality such as not being able to conduct a large volume search would directly impact the department's ability to deliver on its policy objectives. There are already existing contracts for these services, and this contract would be an extension of the current services received.
4. Department-Wide Impact
• The licences are not only critical for OPSS and CLG but also support other teams across DBT, including the Investment team. The renewal of these licences is essential to maintain continuity of service and to avoid disruption to multiple workstreams.
Supplier
Moody's Analytics
- Companies House: 03743494
1 Canada Square
London
E14 5FA
United Kingdom
Email: clientservices@moodys.com
Region: UKI42 - Tower Hamlets
Small or medium-sized enterprise (SME): No
Voluntary, community or social enterprise (VCSE): No
Contract 1
Contracting authority
Department for Business & Trade
- Public Procurement Organisation Number: PZZJ-6312-QTTD
Old Admiralty Building
London
SW1A 2DY
United Kingdom
Contact name: Commercial DDaT
Region: UKI32 - Westminster
Organisation type: Public authority - central government