Defence Online

Type of document: Contract Notice
Country: United Kingdom
Publication Ref: (2021/S 000-002918/EN)
Nature of contract: Service contract
Procedure: Negotiated without a call for competition
Regulation of procurement: Not applicable
Type of bid required: Not applicable

Voluntary ex ante transparency notice
Services

Section I: Contracting authority
I.1) Name and addresses
Official name: Ministry of Defence, C&C, C&C
Postal address: Strategic Command Commercial, Spur B2, Building 405, MOD Corsham, Westwells Road
Town: Corsham
Postal code: SN13 9NR
Country: United Kingdom
Telephone: +44 3067701854
Email: DefComrclCC-JFC3All@mod.gov.uk
Internet address(es):
Main address:

I.4) Type of the contracting authority
Ministry or any other national or federal authority, including their regional or local sub-divisions
I.5) Main activity
Defence

Section II: Object
II.1) Scope of the procurement
II.1.1) Title: Gothic Aps Support and Maintenance Contract

Reference number: 701165378
II.1.2) Main CPV code: 72250000
II.1.3) Type of contract Services
II.1.4) Short Description:
The UK Ministry of Defence intends to place a contract with 1Spatial Group Ltd on a Single Source basis for a duration of 2 years, with options of up to an additional 2 years. The Contract is for software maintenance and repair services and will provide support and maintenance for the bespoke software and applications that make up the GOTHIC Aeronautical Production Systems (APS). Justification for Single Source is made on Technical grounds due to the requirement for 1Spatial Group Ltd to undertake modifications and upgrades to the Gothic code.
II.1.6) Information about lots
The contract is divided into lots: no
II.1.7) Total value of the procurement(excluding VAT)
Value:2361000
Currency:GBP
II.2) Description
II.2.3) Place of performance
Nuts code: UKH12 Main site or place of performance:Cambridgeshire CC

II.2.4) Description of the procurement
The UK Ministry of Defence intends to place a contract with 1Spatial Group Ltd on a Single Source basis for a duration of 2 years plus a further 1 year option. The Contract is for software maintenance and repair services and will
provide support and maintenance for the bespoke software and applications that make up the GOTHIC Aeronautical Production
Systems (APS). Justification for Single Source is made on Technical grounds due to 1Spatial Group Ltd having to undertake
modifications and upgrades to the Gothic code.

II.2.5) Award criteria
II.2.11) Information about options
Options:yes
Description of options:
The requirement will be for two years with options of up to two further years let via sixth month options to a maximum duration of four years.
The first six month option will be invoked three months prior to expiry of the initial two year period, with all subsequent options to be invoked under a minimum thirty day notice period.

II.2.13) Information about European Union funds
The procurement is related to a project and/or programme financed by European Union funds: no
Section IV: Procedure
IV.1) Description
IV.1.1) Type of procedure
Negotiated procedure without publication of a contract notice(in accordance with Article 28 of Directive 2009/81/EU)
IV.1.8) Information about the Government Procurement Agreement(GPA)
The procurement is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement: no
IV.2) Administrative information

Section V: Award of contract/concession
Contract No: 701165378
Title: Gothic APS Support and Maintenance

V.2) Award of contract/concession
V.2.1) Date of conclusion of the contract/concession award decision:2020-12-07
V.2.2) Information about tenders
V.2.3) Name and address of the contractor
Official name: 1Spatial Group Limited
Postal address: Tennyson House, Cowley Road
Town: Cambridge
Postal code: CB4 0WZ
Country: United Kingdom
Telephone: +44 1223420414
Email: Dan.Warner@1spatial.com
Nuts code: UKH12
The contractor is an SME: yes

V.2.4) Information on value of the contract/lot/concession(excluding VAT)
for framework agreements – total maximum value for this lot
for contracts based on framework agreements, if required – value of contract(s) for this lot not included in
previous contract award notices

Section VI: Complementary information
VI.3) Additional information:
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. The link below to the Gov.uk website provides information on the Government Security Classification.

Advertising Regime OJEU:- This contract opportunity is published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU),the MoD Defence Contracts Bulletin and www.contracts.mod.uk GO Reference: GO-2021212-DCB-17786346
VI.4) Procedures for review
VI.4.1) Review body
Official name: Ministry of Defence, C&C, C&C
Postal address: Strategic Command Commercial, Spur B2, Building 405, MOD Corsham, Westwells Road
Town: Corsham
Postal code: SN13 9NR
Country: United Kingdom
Telephone: +44 3067701854
E-mail: DefComrclCC-JFC3All@mod.gov.uk

VI.4.2) Body responsible for mediation procedures
Official name: Ministry of Defence, C&C, C&C
Postal address: Strategic Command Commercial, Spur B2, Building 405, MOD Corsham, Westwells Road
Town: Corsham
Postal code: SN13 9NR
Country: United Kingdom
Telephone: +44 3067701854
E-mail: DefComrclCC-JFC3All@mod.gov.uk

VI.4.4) Service from which information about the review procedure may be obtained
Official name: Ministry of Defence, C&C, C&C
Postal address: Strategic Command Commercial, Spur B2, Building 405, MOD Corsham, Westwells Road
Town: Corsham
Postal code: SN13 9NR
Country: United Kingdom
Telephone: +44 3067701854
E-mail: DefComrclCC-JFC3All@mod.gov.uk

VI.5) Date of dispatch of this notice:
2021-02-12

Justification for the award of the contract without prior publication of a call for
competition in the Official Journal of the European Union
1.Justification for the choice of the negotiated procedure without publication of a call for competition in accordance with
Article 28 of Directive 2009/81/EU
The works, supplies or services can be provided only by a particular economic operator for the following reason:
absence of competition for technical reasons

3.Explanation
Please explain in a clear and comprehensive manner why the award of the contract without prior publication in the Official Journal of the European Union
is lawful, by stating the relevant facts and, as appropriate, the conclusions of law in accordance with the directive:
The contract has not been awarded; this notice is published for transparency. The value of the contract has been estimated.
1Spatial Group Ltd are the only company who can carry out the services relating to the Gothic APS Support and Maintenance Contract on technical grounds under the DSPCR regulations Clause 16(1)(a)(ii). This is due to the complexity of the software: No1 AIDU relies on the Gothic APS software to produce Aeronautical Information (AI) products for UK Defence aviation activities on an Internationally mandated legislative cycle of 28 days known as Aeronautical Information Regulation And Control (AIRAC).
1Spatial Group Ltd own the IPR for the Gothic (source code). The MOD own the IPR for APS. The APS code is dependent on the Gothic proprietary core technology, the two are integrated and the bespoke software will not function without the proprietary software underpinning it. Gothic consists of approximately six million lines of source code, including extensive comments. Bugs in the Gothic or APS code are required to be fixed and enhancements provided as a result of changes to the specification or new requirements from front line users. It would be prohibitively expensive and virtually impossible to fix bugs or enhance the software based on decompiled versions of this volume of code.
The Gothic APS system includes many highly complex and specialised proprietary components including the topology engine, the rules language, the computational geometry, geodetic calculations, the Gothic database etc. Furthermore, a very wide range of languages and technologies are utilised. It is not possible for another supplier to do the work because of the complexity of the software and the linkages between what is owned by MOD and 1Spatial, which would mean opening up both areas of code to fix bugs or provide a change request.