PCD 1387 ARV Ballistic Helmet Replacement

PCD 1387 ARV Ballistic Helmet Replacement

This decision requests approval for use of net additional funding of £984k for the purchase of 590 Ballistic Helmets for Armed Response Vehicle (ARV) Officers (inclusive of management fee).  

This requirement has been caused by the mandate from National Armed Policing that all ARV officers will be CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear) trained, with two thirds of on duty ARVs immediately deployable, by the 1st April 2023. This change to the ARV role profile provoked an urgent review of the ballistic head protection provided to ARV officers within the MPS as the current helmet is not compatible with CBRN respirators and cowls. 

The MPS has a ballistic helmet available, used by CTSFOs (Counter Terrorist Specialist Firearms Officers), the “Ops Core”. This helmet is suitable for the ARV requirement, and is compatible with the CBRN equipment. Within the MPS, this helmet has not been through sufficient commercial governance to roll out in the numbers needed to deliver CBRN capability to all ARV officers. The Ops Core helmet will be one of the options considered and due to its high cost the funding request is calculated on this product.  

To allow the MPS to procure a helmet as close to the required time frame as possible, procurement must take place via the National Uniform Managed Service (NUMS) contract. MOPAC are requested for approval to uplift the DHL contract by sufficient funds to cover the costs of the rollout of a new ARV helmet. The uplift in the contract is compliant with the Public Contract Regulations 2015.  

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to:   

1. Approve expenditure of £822,000 plus DHL management fee (25%) giving a total cost of £1,028,000 for the Armed Response Vehicle (ARV) Ballistic Helmets totaling 590 units as a bulk rollout (replacement) for all ARV trained officers in MO19 and Aviation Policing. The current budget is £44,000 giving a net budget pressure of £984,00 which will be funded from Met Ops staffing underspend (£907,000) and reimbursement by Aviation (£77,000). 

2. Approve the supply and delivery of ARV Ballistic helmets for replacement and initial issue to officers, totaling a maximum of 120 units per year for the remaining 3 years on the National Uniform Managed Service (NUMS) framework. This gives a net budget pressure of £165,000 per year, which will be managed from the MO19 supplies and services budget (£149,000) and reimbursement by Aviation Policing (£16,000). 

3. Approve the uplift to the DHL NUMS framework contract by £1,500,000 for the remaining 3 years to cover the costs. 

PART I - NON-CONFIDENTIAL FACTS AND ADVICE TO THE DMPC 

1. Introduction and background  

1. The Weapons, Equipment & Tactics Working Group (WETWG) have since 2017 been reviewing the current Armed Response Veghicle (ARV) helmet. There have been lessons learned from a number of terrorist attacks as well as enhanced MTFA (Marauding Terrorist Forearms Attack) training. Technology has moved on considerably with regards to armour prompting review of AFO (Authorised Firearms Officer) and FLP (Frontline Policing) body armour. The national CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear) requirement has accelerated the need for a new helmet due to compatibility issues with the current product. There is a pressing need to replace the current helmet for all ARV officers in order to deliver the ARV CBRN capability. The helmet is the key issue on the critical path to deliver the CBRN requirement. 

2. The MPS has a ballistic helmet available, used by CTSFOs (Counter Terrorist Specialist Firearms Officers), (~130 units) the “Ops Core”. This helmet is suitable for the ARV requirement, and is compatible with the CBRN equipment, as confirmed by Avon, the respirator supplier. It is the helmet which is being procured by British Transport Police, Greater Manchester Police, West Midlands Police and City of London Police for the CBRN rollout. Within the MPS this helmet has not been through sufficient commercial governance to roll out in the numbers needed to deliver CBRN capability to all ARV officers. The “Ops Core” helmet will be one of the options considered and due to its high cost the funding request is calculated on this product. It is proposed that to allow the MPS to procure a helmet as close to the required time frame as possible, procurement must take place via the National Uniform Managed Service (NUMS) contract. The required uplift in the contract would be within the Public Contract Regulations 2015, but MOPAC are requested to approve uplifting the DHL contract by sufficient funds to cover the costs of the rollout of a new ARV helmet. 

2. Issues for consideration  

1. There is a mandate set by National Armed Policing to include CBRN in the ARV role profile from 1st April 2023. The current ARV Helmet is not compatible with the CBRN kit and therefore a replacement is required in order to fulfil the national requirement. 

2. The currently supplied helmet made by Galvion is experiencing substantial supply chain delays. By procuring and issuing 590 ARV officers with a new helmet this will allow their old helmets to be re-cycled to other AFOs at a one-off cost saving of £180k. 

3. Aviation Policing have a number of ARV officers who will require the replacement helmet in order to be compliant with the national ARV role profile. This funding will be requested via Third Party Contracts.  

4. There are health and wellbeing, equality and tactical advantages compared with current issued helmet due to advances in technology meaning that the helmet is lighter.  

5. The MPS is not currently aware of any CBRN compatible “full cut” helmets. The national guidance for ARV officer kit lists recommends a “high cut” helmet. 

6. To address conflicting requirements associated with comfort, compatibility with equipment and helmet coverage; MO19 SLT in consultation with SO-AP, have agreed to test a number of helmets including human factors / compatibility testing in order to complete a risk assessment, taking a a risk based decision as to whether the wearability and compatibility with equipment outweighs the compromise in coverage. This will be presented to Cmdr Uniformed Ops for NPCC acceptance and sign off.  

3. Financial Comments  

1. The total cost of the roll-out of the new ARV Ballistic Helmets is £1.03m in 2022/23. This is £984k more than the current budget. There will be a contribution of £77k from aviation leaving a pressure of £907k which will be funded from Met Operations Staffing underspend.  

2. The ongoing cost of the new helmets will £209k per annum including management fee, which is £165k per annum more than the current budget. Aviation will be reimbursing £16k per annum.  The remaining cost pressure will be managed by MO19 supplies and services budgets. There is an option that the old helmets can be redistributed to other OCUs after refurbishment which will save the MPS £180k in the first year, however, these funds will not be returned to MO19. 

4. Legal Comments  

1. The Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (“MOPAC”) is a contracting authority as defined in the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (“the Regulations”).  All awards of public contracts for goods and/or services valued at £213,477 (incl. VAT) or above shall be procured in accordance with the Regulations. This report confirms the value of the proposed contract exceeds this threshold.   

2. The business justification paper confirms the MOPAC’s route to market is through its existing NUMS contract with DHL.  The report also confirms the sourcing exercise carried out by DHL is compliant with both the NUMS contract and the Regulations. 

3. Paragraph 4.8 of the MOPAC Scheme of Delegation and Consent provides the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime (“DMPC”) has delegated authority to approve Business cases for revenue or capital expenditure of £500,000 and above. 

4. The report requests an increase in value of the NUMS contract of £1.5m for the remaining 3 years of the contract against an original contract value of £102m, equating to an increase in value of 1.4%, and is compliant with regulation 72(8). 

5. Paragraph 7.24 of the Scheme provides the Director of Commercial Services has consent for approval of all unforeseen variations and extensions with an original value of £500,000 or above that the DMPC is not required to approve in line with the Scheme of consent.  Paragraph 4.14 of the Scheme provides the DMPC reserves the right to call in all variations and extensions to contracts with an original value of £500,000 or above. 

5. Commercial Issues  

1. The existing ARV ballistic helmet, is currently sourced via DHL and included in the scope of the NUMS contract. If the MPS are required to meet the national requirement, as close to 1st April 2023 as possible, the commercial recommendation would be to procure via the DHL NUMS contract. It will not be possible to complete a competitive process in this timescale given the long lead times of these products, with the MPS needing to identify the exact product to be purchased. Although commercial preference would be to run a competitive process, either directly or via DHL, this would mean that the MPS would not be able to meet the 1st April 2023 and would be looking at an implementation of December 2023 onwards, depending on the product selected. Both routes to market will be compliant with MOPAC Scheme of Delegation and PCR 2015. 

2. To complete a new roll-out of the helmets, will require an uplift of £1.5m to the current approved NUMS contract (exc. Ballistic body armour, which required an £8.8m uplift to the NUMS contract) of £102m, equating to an increase of 1.4%. This allows sufficient headroom in the contract, pro-actively for MPS uniform and PPE requirements, providing advance notice and justification of increases to the market and MOPAC, without exhausting contract value before its expiry as necessary by a diligent contracting authority. 

3. The long-term procurement of the sourced ARV helmet should remain under the DHL contract, because a competitive longer term process would create a duplication of costs as they cannot have multiple types of helmets in use. In addition, DHL hold and purchase these items for all NUMS forces creating volume leverage, stock-holding and increased resilience of supply chain, managed via Supplier Relationship Management and formal SLA monitoring. 

6. GDPR and Data Privacy  

1. The MPS is subject to the requirements and conditions placed on it as a 'State' body to comply with the European Convention of Human Rights and the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018. Both legislative requirements place an obligation on the MPS to process personal data fairly and lawfully in order to safeguard the rights and freedoms of individuals. 

2. Under Article 35 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Section 57 of the DPA 2018, Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIA) become mandatory for organisations with technologies and processes that are likely to result in a high risk to the rights of the data subjects. 

3. The Information Assurance and Information Rights units within MPS will be consulted at all stages to ensure the programme / project meets its compliance requirements. 

4. The project does not use personally identifiable data of members of the public, so there are no GDPR issues to be considered. 

7. Equality Comments  

1. Armed Policing faces challenges in recruiting female officers with the weight of equipment seen as a barrier to recruitment and retention. The proposed ARV helmet is significantly lighter than the current one and therefore we believe that the reduced weight will remove some barriers and ensure armed policing in the capital can be more reflective of this city’s communities. 

2. No Implications for the London Anchor Institutions’ Charter. 

8. Background/supporting papers 

1. Report