Type of document: Contract Notice
Country: United Kingdom
Notice Type:MOD Contract Notice
GB-Bristol: Type 31e (T31e) Frigate
Region Codes: UKK11
Section I: Contract Title
1. Contract Title: GB-Bristol: Type 31e (T31e) Frigate
2. Section (DIO only):
Section II: Identification Numbers
1. MOD Contract Notice Nr: SHIPACQ/182
Section III: Relevant Dates
1. Deadline for Expression of Interest: 09/03/2018
2. Proposed/Estimated ITT Issue Date: 12/03/2018
3. Proposed/Estimated ITT Return Date: 06/04/2018
4. Proposed Issue Date of Contract: 23/04/2018
5. Proposed Completion Date of Contract: 30/11/2018
Section IV: Issuing Branch / Organisation Details
1. Notice Address
Ministry of Defence
Type 31e Acquisition Team, ASH 0C # 3016, Abbey Wood South, Bristol, BS34 8JH, United Kingdom
Tel. +44 117 314 6044, Email: DESShipsComrcl-T31e@mod.gov.uk
Contact: Gary Richards, Attn: Gary Richards
Section V: Product / Service Descriptor Code
1. Industry Codes:
34500000 – Ships and boats.
35511200 – Destroyers and frigates.
35510000 – Warships.
73424000 – Development of warships.
Section VI: Summary of Requirements / Description of Work, Goods and Services
1. Summary of Requirements / Description of Work: Ships and boats. Destroyers and frigates. Warships. Development of warships. As announced in the National Shipbuilding Strategy (“NSbS”) the Ministry of Defence (“MOD”) is seeking to procure five new General Purpose Frigates for the Royal Navy (“RN”) for a Firm Price of £1.25 billion.
The T31e will be a General Purpose Frigate, providing an enduring and continuous worldwide maritime security presence in several forward operating areas and releasing other, more complex warships to their primary roles.
The T31e will carry out various maritime interdiction tasks, such as counter drugs and counter piracy. It will also carry out defence engagement activities, such as port visits and official entertainment, demonstrations of military capability and participation in allied training exercises. It must be ready to respond to emergent events, such as natural disasters or evacuation of non-combatants and will routinely carry specialist emergency relief stores in certain operating areas.
The T31e design will need to be adaptable, providing evolution paths for future capability to enable growth of the destroyer and frigate numbers into the 2030s, and to address export customers’ needs.
The purpose of this Contract Notice (CN) is to advertise the requirement and invite companies to express their interest to receive the tender for the T31e competitive procurement. Only bidders who wish to undertake the whole £1.25bn contract should respond to this CN.
As stated in the NSbS one of the key directives is to build the T31e in the United Kingdom (“UK”). As such, bidders should be aware that one of the key criteria in the PQQ is to provide evidence that the bidder’s T31e design will be built in UK shipyards.
Intended Procurement Process
All suppliers who express an interest in this procurement, and return a response to the Security Aspects Letter (“SAL”) within AWARD™ (further details below) by the deadline, will be invited to submit a response to the pre-qualification questionnaire (“PQQ”) and the Competitive Design Phase (“CDP”) Invitation to Negotiate (“ITN”). The CDP is a funded phase of the T31e programme where suppliers will develop their designs to a required maturity point. Although the ITN in respect of the CDP (“CDP ITN”) will be issued at the same time as the PQQ, only bids received from applicants who are assessed by the Authority to meet the PQQ requirements will be evaluated by the Authority. It is anticipated that the CDP will last approximately seven months. The Authority intends to award CDP contracts to up to four successful bidders determined by the Authority in accordance with the published evaluation criteria in the CDP ITN. The CDP is the first stage of the design process which will assess whether suppliers can deliver, as a minimum, the RN’s threshold capability by the target date and within the available budget which will be articulated in the Design & Build (“D&B”) ITN.
On or after contract award in respect of CDP, the Authority will issue the ITN for the D&B Phase (“D&B ITN”) together with the draft D&B contract to those suppliers awarded a CDP contract. Suppliers will be required to negotiate the terms of the D&B contract and provide deliverables at the end of CDP which will be evaluated in accordance with the published evaluation criteria in the D&B ITN. The supplier which provides the best value proposal that is affordable, in accordance with the requirements of the published evaluation criteria in the D&B ITN, will (subject to approvals) be awarded the D&B contract. Under both the CDP ITN and D&B ITN, price is not the only award criteria and all relevant evaluation criteria are set out in the procurement documents.
Whilst what is set out above is the intended procurement process, the Authority, in its sole discretion, reserves the right to amend in any way and/or cancel the procurement process.
The Authority reserves the right to withdraw this notice at any time for any reason.
The Authority reserves the right not to award any contract to any bidder following the CDP and/or D&B phase. The Authority does not bind itself to enter into any contract(s) arising out of the proceedings envisaged by this contract notice and no contractual rights express or implied arise out of this contract notice or the procedures envisaged by it.
This procurement is exempt from the Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011 (the “DSPCR”) pursuant to Article 346 TFEU and therefore no rights, duties, obligations or liabilities arising from the Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011 and/or the EU Treaties apply to this procurement. By expressing an interest in the procurement, you acknowledge that none of the obligations, rights and remedies deriving from the DSPCR and/or the EU Treaties apply to this procurement.
Other than any amount that may be paid to successful CDP bidders in accordance with the terms of the CDP Contract, any suppliers who respond to this procurement (irrespective of whether they are assessed to meet the PQQ requirements or are evaluated to be successful CDP bidders) shall be fully responsible for the cost of responding to the procurement and the Authority does not accept any liability for any costs howsoever incurred.
Indicative Timeline
The indicative procurement timeline, which the Authority reserves the right to amend at its sole discretion is as follows:
1. PQQ & CDP ITN Issue Date: 12 Mar 2018
2. PQQ & CDP ITN Submission Deadline: 6 Apr 2018
3. CDP Contract Award for up to four bidding organisations: 23 Apr 2018
4. ITN for D&B Phase Issue Date: May 2018
5. D&B ITN Submission Deadline: Nov 2018
6. D&B Contract Award: Q1 2019
The Authority is using the AWARD™ software upon this project. AWARD™ will be used to:
• provide access to documents shared by the Authority;
• allow bidders to raise and respond to requests and clarifications;
• provide a portal for formal submission of responses; and
• support the Authority in their assessment of the responses.
AWARD™ is an intuitive internet based system to use and contains on-line guidance. AWARD™ will be used to manage distribution of the CDP ITN, supporting documents, and collection of response material. To access the system a user will need to state that they have read the AWARD™ terms and conditions of use and confirm that the user accepts them. Access to the procurement documents is restricted and will only be provided through AWARD™ as set out in this Contract Notice.
To express an interest to this procurement you must send your lead bidder’s/consortia company name and two point of contact details, to include their name, phone number, email address, and postal address to DESShipsComrcl-T31e@mod.gov.uk. On receipt of this expression of interest the Authority will provide both points of contact access to AWARD™ to view the SAL and allow them to upload a response confirming they accept the contents of the letter. The deadline for uploading a response to the SAL, in AWARD™ is 12:00 midday on 9th March 2018. Any expressions of interest received after this time, and/or responses to the SAL uploaded after this time, will be rejected at the Authorities sole discretion.
The PQQ and the CDP ITN will be viewable to all suppliers who uploaded a response to the SAL by the deadline, on AWARD™ at 9:00am on 12th March 2018.
The Authority will be holding a bidder’s conference on the 15th March for suppliers who are bidding into this procurement only. As space is limited the Authority will only offer places to suppliers who are committed to submitting a bid to this procurement, and the Authority will determine who receives an invite based on the expressions of interest received. The decision on which suppliers receive an invite will be made at the Authorities sole discretion.
A second conference for the wider supply chain is planned to be held in April, post CDP contract award, to provide industry with an update on the program and an opportunity for suppliers to network with one another. Further information on this conference will be made available in due course.
2. Main Place of Performance or Delivery: Bristol, City of
3. Can a supplier bid alone for only a part of the contract?: No
Section VII: Reverse Auction
1. Reverse Auction: No. A Reverse Auction, conducted using electronic means, will not be used as part of the procurement process for this requirement.
Section VIII: Estimated Value of Requirement
1. Estimated Value of Requirement: Category A: 400M GBP and above
Section IX: QA Standards
1. QA Standards: BS EN ISO 9001 with appropriate scope
Section XII: Additional Information
1. Additional Information:
Suppliers interested in working with the MOD should register on its Supplier Information Database (SID), available at www.contracts.mod.uk. The SID is a catalogue of potential suppliers available to all MOD procurement staff, and is the main supplier database used by MOD. Please note that the registration and publication of a company profile on the SID does not mean or imply that the supplier has in any way been vetted or approved by the MOD. Suppliers wishing to compete for a contract opportunity must respond to any specific call for competition by submitting a separate expression of interest in accordance with the instructions in the contract notice.
From 2 April 2014 the Government is introducing its new Government Security Classifications Policy (GSC) to replace the current Government Protective Marking Scheme. A key aspect of this is the reduction in the number of security classifications used. All suppliers to the Department are encouraged to make themselves aware of the changes as it may impact on this Requirement. The link below to the Gov.uk website provides information on the new GSC.
The Authority reserves the right to amend any condition related to security of information to reflect any changes in national law or government policy. If any contract documents are accompanied by instructions on safeguarding classified information (e.g. a Security Aspects Letter), the Authority reserves the right to amend the terms of these instructions to reflect any changes in national law or government policy, whether in respect of the applicable protective marking scheme, specific protective markings given, the aspects to which any protective marking applies, or otherwise.
Advertising Regime DCB:- These contract opportunities are published on mod Contracts Online and in the MoD Defence Contracts Bulletin.
Cyber Security Information
The Cyber Risk Level for the Competitive Design Phase is assessed at ‘LOW’. A full description of the four Cyber Risk Levels is available in DEFSTAN 05138.
Suppliers are invited to make themselves familiar with the requirements against the ‘Low’ risk profile assessment.
A link to what is required under the ‘Low’ Risk Profile is available below:
Suppliers should be aware that as part of the tendering process, the lead consortium is required to complete a supplier assurance questionnaire using Octavian, an online tool. Upon issue of the CDP ITN, the Authority will specify the unique Risk Assessment Reference (RAR), which will allow suppliers to complete their supplier assurance questionnaire. Please note that it is recommended to register as a supplier at this stage, as this process can take up to a week.
Further guidance concerning the Supplier Assurance Questionnaire is available at the following link:
Further information relating to the Defence Cyber Protection Partnership, a joint Ministry of Defence and Industry initiative to outline the joint response to cyber threat.
The Authority reserves the right to amend any condition related to security of information to reflect any changes in national law or government policy. If any contract documents are accompanied by instructions on safeguarding classified information (e.g. a SAL), the Authority reserves the right to amend the terms of these instructions to reflect any changes in national law or government policy, whether in respect of the applicable protective marking scheme, specific protective markings given, the aspects to which any protective marking applies, or otherwise.
