Services and Support for ScotWind Leasing Application Review (Amendment)

Descriptions

This is a voluntary ex ante transparency (VEAT) notice. Crown Estate Scotland awarded a contract in December 2019 for support during the leasing process for offshore wind projects (ScotWind Leasing). The process includes receiving a number of applications for sites and making an evaluation of them. Crown Estate Scotland appointed Ove Arup to work with our in-house team in: - Preparing evaluation systems and processes; and - providing a team of reviewers to assist by undertaking the evaluation of applications. The contract award notices specified a value which was based on the assessment of the number of applications it anticipated that it may receive based on its knowledge of the market and also information from historic leasing rounds. The procurement exercise was conducted on the basis that there were a number of external dependencies which could not be accurately determined at the time including that the timing of the exercise was dependent on the publication of the Sectoral Marine Plan and the expected number of registrations. It is anticipated that the number of the applications is likely to be higher than that estimated when submitting the contract award notice and the timing of the opening of the application window and publication of key supporting information has been delayed. The contract scope had highlighted a number of these uncertainties but now needs to be updated to reflect the current position. This voluntary ex ante transparency note is to advise of the intention to amend the contract to reflect the intended position that the contract related to the assessment of all applications as opposed to a specific or capped number. This does not therefore amount to a material change as (i) the modification does not change the character of the contract (ii) it does not introduce new conditions which were not part of the original process (iii) it does not change the balance of in favour of the contractor in a way which was not envisaged by the original documents and (iv) it does not extend the scope considerably on the basis that the scope had originally envisaged that these services would be provided by the stated supplier. Contract end date has been initially extended to 31/03/2022 due to external delays. Number of lease applications that will be received is unknown. A nominal figure to ascertain an indicative contract value has been used, however this will likely change. The expected value of the contract is now 628 000.00 GBP which was determined following a review of the elements required to properly score the potential applications, the processes and work required to undertake the development of the process, the time required to score the applications and the nominal number of expected applications.