Shellfish Sampling Services for the Cornwall Port Health Authority

Descriptions

Port Health is a service of Cornwall Council. The Council has a statutory duty, overseen by the Food Standards Agency (FSA), to carry out official controls in relation to the regulation of the shellfish industry in Cornwall. This entails regular sample testing of shellfish for bacterial and bio-toxin testing across a number of locations, primarily between Looe and the Lizard Peninsula, but those locations could expand to other sites further along the Cornish Coast. This requires the provision, use and maintenance of third party owned and operated vessels, the provision and servicing of between 25-35 (currently 27) individual mooring systems, use of crew members and use of open water diving services.The authority is anticipating receiving bids from prime contractors, who will take responsibility for providing all aspects of the service requirements either through their own resources or by suitably managing subcontractors, where necessary and as such collaborative bids would be welcomed, as long as it is clear which organisation is the lead bidder and would be responsible for contracting with the authority.The authority will only accept bids for the full range of services required, for each or both of the two operational zones (lots), whether that might be fulfilled by one company on its own or as a lead bidder on behalf of a collaborative consortium bid.As set out within the ITT supplier guidance document, in line with the established overall evaluation criteria, the authority may be able to award against each of the individual zones (lots) or if it is more economically advantageous to do so, may award both zones (lots) to one bidder, if their packaged combined zones (lots) bid presents a more economically advantageous solution.This contract opportunity is being formally advertised to run for an initial 3 years from 1 August 2020, with an option to extend for a further 20 months beyond that, up until 31 March 2025.