UK Public Sector Contracts & Tenders

Defra have commissioned Natural England to develop a new advice Framework contract to replace the existing Farm and Land Management (FaLMA) Framework which ends June 2023. This new Environmental Training, Advice, and Facilitation Framework (ETAFF) will facilitate the procurement of land management advice, supporting a range of themes through Exchequer and other funds. This is to be developed as a single flexible framework contract (circa 2023 to 2027) and is to be outsourced. The ETAF Framework is to be designed to be a NIL value contract including a wide range of Suppliers who will be able to provide the range of services required, covering the whole of England at a Lot level basis to meet agreed geographical requirements and objectives.

This project aims to appoint suppliers of Digital Aerial Surveys (DAS) coupled with airborne Lidar to a procurement framework, which will then be used to commission a series of mini-competitions for the ReSCUE (Reducing Seabird Collisions Using Evidence) project. The initial requirement will be to provide DAS imagery coupled with Lidar data for a series of validation surveys (approx. June – September 2024); assuming these are successful, following determination of new data collection areas in Work Package 2, a campaign of DAS coupled with Lidar data collection for target seabird species will be required (approx. January 2025 to June 2026), wholly or partly within offshore wind farms in UK waters.

The primary purpose of the scheme is to reduce the flood risk from the River Severn.

The National Enforcement Training Framework is for the provision of external trainers to deliver enforcement-related training courses either in person or virtually (MS Teams)

National Angling Strategic Services Contract 3 (NASS3)

The EA Air Quality contracts team have been given project approval to procure analysers that can measure Particulate Matter (PM) 2.5 analysers as part of the establishment of a 99 site expansion at near source and urban background locations. The establishment of the sites will be phased over the financial years 22/23 and 23/24 and the instrumentation will need to be ready for installation as the new sites are established. Once operational the instruments will be part of the AURN network but will be managed and delivered under a new contract being procured during 2023. This expansion is a specific requirement requested by Defra for more PM2.5 Particulate Matter (PM) instruments to get more measurement evidence base for the PM2.5 environmental targets. The targets are a Statutory Instrument being set under the Environment Act 2021, to be put before parliament by 31st October 2022.

The Environment Agency is looking to issue a tender for a contract to cover two of its independent radiological monitoring programmes: • Independent monitoring of radioactivity in the environment • Chemical and radiochemical analysis of sources of drinking water These programmes are being integrated to allow for more sustainable and efficient sample collection. The programme of independent monitoring of radioactivity in the environment, looks at where radioactivity could lead to exposure to the public from non-food pathways such as the occupation of beaches, river banks or other areas. The programme mainly consists of sampling, dose rates measurements and laboratory analysis of radionuclide concentrations on samples taken from specified locations near nuclear sites in England and Wales. The programme for chemical and radiochemical analysis of sources of drinking water provides an understanding of background radioactivity levels and enables the Environment Agency to provide information to Water Companies on the activity concentrations of radionuclides in raw water sources and provides supplementary data to the Environment Agency on the exposure of the public to radiation. The programme mainly consists of the contractor taking raw water samples from Water Company premises/assets (in England and Wales), thus requires liaison with Water Companies, and undertaking laboratory based chemical and radiochemical analyses of the water samples.

Providing Defra and its Network Organisations the ability to hire aircraft and pilots

This framework will focus on flood and coastal erosion modelling, forecasting and flood hydrology improvements, and national/catchment scale modelling, mapping and forecasting projects not linked to the development and delivery of schemes that contribute to the target to reduce risk to 336,000 properties in the 6 year capital programme. 

The framework will deliver the services to support the delivery of the EA's FCERM Strategy, the integrated Asset Management Strategy and be aligned to the Environment Agency’s sustainability goals as set out in the eMission 2030 Plan. The framework will also give the EA the tools to support the critical flood risk mapping, forecasting and warning activities.

The Environment Agency is seeking to establish a new contract for provision of Servicing, Maintenance and Repair of Analytical Laboratory Equipment. The service is required for EA Monitoring Laboratory sites in Leeds and Exeter (Starcross). The Authority may include other agencies from Defra Group as part of this contract during the contract term. All information provided is subject to change including the contract value and is not a guarantee of the level of work that will be generated through any future contract. The procurement remains subject to final approvals and governance.

The Environment Agency is renewing, evolving and retendering its Incident Management Training and Exercising Framework.

The Framework Agreement will be for the delivery of On Farm Kill, Droving and Herding and Carcase Collection Services in nine (9) Geographical Regions across England, Wales and Scotland.

Provision and Maintenence of a Vegetable and Pea Genebank to Facilitate R&D Need A two lot project, lot one hosting a collection of vegetable genetic material and lot two hosting a collection of pea genetic material. Project aims for both lots are: • Protecting our most important food and forage crops in an effort to safeguard global food security • Minimising genetic erosion and safeguard the genetic diversity of farmed and wild plants • Conserving and sustainably using our plant genetic resources • Sharing the benefits arising from the conservation and sustainable use of our plant genetic resources

This framework will provide a complementary leadership, management and personal effectiveness learning and development curriculum offer, which will be accessed by all employees, accommodates hybrid working and is sustainable. In addition, we seek to access specialist Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) expertise through a specific Lot to add depth across our learning and development curriculum. This Framework is structured into five Lots, with varying learning and development topic areas that can be adapted for different delegate audiences and approaches. We expect all our learning and development interventions to support our desired culture with EDI needs and requirements embedded throughout.

The existing LandIS agreement between Cranfield University (CU) and Defra sets out that Cranfield charges for access to its datasets and limits how they can be used, which broadly encompasses: • The platform which is owned and hosted by Cranfield for the provision of National Soil Map (NATMAP) • National Soil Inventory (NSI) and soil attribute data (SOILSERIES & HORIZON), and its supplementary data bases (broadly: the LandIS platform data). All Crown bodies currently enjoy full royalty-free access to LandIS, and this available to charities and research institutions. However, non-crown bodies such as the Environment Agency or Natural England, and other public sector bodies, private individuals, consultants, and businesses do not have royalty-free access to this data, which significantly hampers the use of soil data more widely. Most significantly, the current licencing limits how Defra can use these data sets to further its policy objectives. The decision has been taken between Defra and Cranfield University for Cranfield to make the majority of the aforementioned data openly available. This will open up access to key datasets for land managers, farmers, planners, partner organisations to support major 25 YEP initiatives such as ELMS, Nature Recovery Network, Local Nature Recovery Strategies, Agricultural Land Classification (ALC), NCEA, and also contribute to Net Zero work.

Defra is currently considering options for the procurement of expert consultancy services to support the assessment of industry applications for Regulatory Justification of new nuclear technologies. This will enable Defra to fulfil its obligations as Justifying Authority under the Justification of Practices Involving Ionising Radiation Regulations 2004 (1769/2004), which require functional separation between DESNZ (Department of Energy Security and Net Zero) as the department promoting nuclear technology and the Justifying Authority. The option to approach the market with a tender for a dedicated multi-supplier framework is being considered alongside other potential routes to market. Defra wish to undertake a market engagement market exercise to better understand the interest, capability and capacity of the supply market to provide these services in any future invitation to tender. Examples of the type of services expected to be required include ongoing technical advisory, analytical and consultancy support throughout the multi-month assessment of a Justification application, and/or shorter projects which may involve written advice and assessments of the appropriacy of the definition(s) of a class or type of practice of new nuclear technologies, analysis of specific issues raised by consultation respondents or comparison of specific aspects of current and previous applications. Contractors will need to assess applications in respect of their important economic, energy security, carbon reduction and other benefits and on a wide range of detriments, which include radiological detriment to health, safety and security and environmental impacts, covering operation, waste disposal and decommissioning. Contractors will therefore need to have expertise in the following areas: 1. Economic analysis and appropriate knowledge of the energy sector, to enable effective assessment of how the class or type of practice contributes to the energy mix in UK policy. 2. Broad and deep knowledge of nuclear energy sector, to enable effective assessment based on fully informed understanding of technologies. 3. Expert formal consultancy advice, with a view to working in close partnership with Defra's Nuclear Justification team. More information on the services required and the market engagement exercised can be found in the attached P33774 PIN Further Information document To indicate your organisation's interest in tendering for a future contract, you are invited to complete a short questionnaire which is attached to this notice. This PIN does not constitute a formal notice to tender and there is no guarantee Defra will proceed with an external tendering exercise to create a or other form of contract. By replying to the questionnaire, you are not committing to any future tender submission and replies will not form part of any subsequent tender process or evaluation.