The Provision of Coach and Driver Hire Services

The MPS require Coach & Driver Hire Services to support operational policing for events such as Trooping the Colour, State Opening of Parliament, New Year Eve Celebrations and other State occasions.

The current contract expires on 31st March 2019 and £0.17M value remains.

To allow for the continued provision of services approval is sought for the following commercial actions:

a) Extension of the existing contract in accordance with regulation 72(1)(b) of the Public Contract Regulations 2015. The value of the extension will be £0.24M

b) If any incident occurs (which cannot be foreseen) a further extension under regulation 72(1)(c) of the Public Contact Regulations 2015 (circumstances have arisen which a diligent contracting authority could not have foreseen) up to a value of £0.24M

c) Approval to initiate procurement action to tender for a replacement contract valued at £1.71M with a 4 year duration

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to:

Approve an extension to Kings Ferry Ltd for the ‘Provision of Coach & Driver Hire Services’ under the existing terms and conditions;

a) A 12 month contract term due to commence on 1st April 2019

b) The contract extension is valued at £0.24M plus potential extensions for unforeseen events up to a total value of £0.24M as detailed within Part 2

c) Spend incurred under this contract will be met from the £2.19M allocated within the respective Business Groups’ devolved revenue budgets.

Approve the procurement initiation for the retender of the ‘Provision of Coach & Driver Hire Services;

a) With a 4 year contract term due to commence on 1st April 2020

b) The contract is valued at £1.71M

c) Delegate consent to award to the MPS Commercial Director if the final award is within 10% of the value stated above

d) Spend incurred under this contract will be met from the £2.19M allocated within the respective Business Groups’ devolved revenue budgets.

1. Introduction and background

1.1. The Provision of Coach & Driver Hire Services supports operational policing and enables the MPS to move large number of officers around London to enable the appropriate policing plan to be deployed.

1.2. The original contract award term was 18 months in duration and commenced on 1st October 2017 and the contract was valued at £0.48M.

2. Issues for consideration

2.1. The MPS require Coach & Driver Hire Services to support operational policing for events such as Trooping the Colour; State Opening of Parliament; New Year’s Eve Celebrations and other state occasions.

3. Financial Comments

3.1. Expenditure against this and any future contract will be met from the £2.19m allocated within the Business Groups’ devolved revenue budgets.

4. Legal Comments

4.1. The extension will be conducted in accordance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. The grounds for extension of the contract are in line with regulation 72(1)(b) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 which allow for existing contracts to be modified to include additional services by the original contractor, where a change of supplier-

(i) cannot be made for economic or technical reasons such as requirements of interchangeability or interoperability with existing equipment, services or installations procured under the initial procurement, and

(ii) would cause significant inconvenience or substantial duplication of costs for the contracting authority

4.2. As per Clause 4.13 of the Scheme of Delegation and Consent, approval is delegated to DMPC to approve all unforeseen variations and extensions to contracts with an original value of £500,000 or above, when the variation or extension is greater than 10% of the original value and/or is for a period of more than 12 months; and all requests to go out to tender for contracts of £500,000 or above, or where there is a particular public interest.

5. Commercial Issues

5.1. There are three aspects to the commercial approach for this tender;

a) Contract variation for time and value in accordance with regulation 72(1)(b)

b) Unforeseen contraction for value in accordance with regulation 72(1)(c) and

c) Replacement contract

5.2. An extension of the contract with the existing supplier is necessary for a number of technical, economic and other reasons including but not limited to:

a) This supplier has an established capability to provide the service including having the required operational policies and procedures embedded in their service, which no other supplier is likely to be capable of instigating before March 2019

b) A new supplier would be more expensive, particularly given that any new contract would only be for a short term (12 months or less)

c) It would be time consuming and inconvenient to try to source and on-board a new supplier for such a short contract and this may affect operations

d) It is likely that even if a new supplier could be successfully procured before March, MPS would be paying for duplicate services including a handover period (which would be necessary particularly in respect of ensuring any new supplier meets the necessary requirements, which the current supplier has already established).

6. GDPR and Data Privacy

6.1. The proposal does not use personally identifiable data therefore there are no GDPR issues to be considered.

7. Equality Comments

7.1. There are no equality or diversity implications arising from this report.

8. Background/supporting papers

8.1. MPS report