Supply of Ammunition

The paper details the request for a single tender actions to commence in order to award contracts to providers for continuous supply of existing Ammunitions.

This requirement is essential to ensure that to SCO19 can effectively meet and sustain the operational and training demands for ammunition supplies to Firearm Commands for the next two-three years, whilst a procurement strategy is planned and executed.

Approval is sought to award these contracts using the negotiated procedure without prior publication for the medium term to bridge the gap and ensure continuous supply of training and operational ammunition whilst a Procurement strategy is developed and tenders processes executed. All interim contracts will have flexibility in their terms and have clauses for termination for convenience in light of the potential contract awards from the planned competitive tender processes.

Awarding contracts for an agreed period will add value by ensuring a fixed pricing for ammunition, volume discounts and shorter lead times. The longer-term contracts equally allows resilience and contingency to be built in should there be any surges in demand and allows better management controls for any quality issues with batches.

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to:

• Approve the award of four separate contracts for a variety of mixed calibre ammunitions (Operational, Training and Specialist Training) for 2-year initial terms with options to extend for 12 months. Details of ammunitions are included in the exempt part of the report. The estimated contract values are;
  • £1.164m
  • £0.630m
  • £3.456m
  • £1.290m
• To note the intentions for establishing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Ministry of Defence (MOD) to allow the MPS to purchase their Ammunition and Explosive Goods where practical.

1. Introduction and background

1.1. This requirement is essential to ensure that to SCO19 can effectively meet and sustain the operational and training demands for ammunition supplies to Firearm Commands for the next two-three years, whilst a procurement strategy is planned and executed.

1.2. Nationally the increase in Counter Terrorist Specialist Firearms Officers (CTFSO) continues to grow, which adds aditional demand on the MPS for the provision of National CTSFO training. Additionally the implementation of new specialist capabilities enabled by the firearms uplift also attracts further ammuntion use across the armed workforce.

2. Issues for consideration

2.1. SCO19 use over thirteen different types of weapons systems for operations and training together with in excess of twenty different types of ammunitions. This a complex and intricate subject to be fully appreciated and is certainly not a case of one size fits all as different calibers are needed to suit the weapon system and situations they are to be used in.

2.2. This approval is sought to award these contracts using the negotiated procedure without prior publication for the medium term to bridge the gap and ensure continuous supply of training and operational ammunition whilst a Procurement strategy is developed and tenders processes executed. All interim contracts will have flexibility in their terms and have clauses for termination for convenience in light of the potential contract awards from the planned competitive tender processes.

3. Financial Comments

3.1. This will be funded from existing revenue budget of £3m.

4. Legal Comments

4.1. The Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) is a contracting authority as defined in the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (PCR 2015).

4.2. Paragraph 4.13 of the MOPAC Scheme of Delegation and Consent (the Scheme) requires that approval is obtained by the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime (DMPC) for all contract exemptions for £100,000 and above.

4.3. Regulation 32 of the PCR 2015 details the circumstances when the negotiated procedure may be used without prior publication.

4.4. DLS confirms that the recommendations can be approved on the basis that the most appropriate exemption has been relied upon. Further legal information is contained in the exempt section of the report.

5. GDPR and Data Privacy

5.1. The programme does not use personally identifiable data of members of the public therefore there are no GDPR issues to be considered.

6. Equality Comments

6.1. There are not any negative equality or diversity implications arising from this proposal.

7. Background/supporting papers

7.1. Report