Award

Laboratory Information System Upgrade

ANIMAL AND PLANT HEALTH AGENCY

This public procurement record has 3 releases in its history.

Award

30 Sep 2025 at 11:19

Award

24 Sep 2025 at 11:53

Award

20 Aug 2025 at 08:45

Summary of the contracting process

The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), a central government public authority based in London, is initiating a process to upgrade its Laboratory Information Management System (SampleManager) from version 12.1 to 21.3. This upgrade aims to ensure the management of animal disease outbreaks and international trade by maintaining disease-free status through improved surveillance. The procurement process is at the award stage as of 30th September 2025, with a direct procurement method employed due to the software's exclusive intellectual property ownership by ThermoFisher Scientific. The contract commenced on 3rd September 2025, with potential extensions up to September 2027.

This tender provides significant business growth opportunities, especially for large organisations adept in IT services such as consulting, software development, and support. Companies with a focus on niche software solutions, particularly those related to laboratory information systems, would be well-suited to engage with such contracts. Though this particular procurement was directly awarded to ThermoFisher Scientific, similar future opportunities could arise for those capable of offering alternative technologies or complementary services that align with statutory surveillance and testing requirements.

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Notice Title

Laboratory Information System Upgrade

Notice Description

The SampleManager is the software for the Laboratory Information Management Service system is used extensively for recording animal submissions, samples and testing, facilitates reporting of disease test results and underpins statutory disease testing for notifiable diseases, reportable diseases and other zoonotic diseases (human impacting diseases with primary biological reservoir in animals). This system is critical to APHA's management of animal disease outbreaks and assuring and facilitating international trade by demonstrating sufficient surveillance for disease-free status. The purpose of this Transparency Notice is to announce APHA's intention to enter into a contract to upgrade the SampleManager current version (12.1) which is now out of support to 21.3 version for a year with 12 months extend options.

Procurement Information

Thermo Electron Ltd are the sole owners and licensor of SampleManager software, and there are no alternatives available to Animal and Plant Health Agency without rewriting all forecasting models. It is the view of the Animal and Plant Health Agency that this contract is justifiable under Paragraph 5 in Schedule 5 of the Procurement Act 2023 to award the contract for the supply and support of the SampleManager software because, ThermoFisher Scientific own the intellectual property for the software, and there are no reasonable alternative, nor can another organisation supply and support the software. Additionally, it is the view of the Animal and Plant Health Agency that this contract is also justifiable under Paragraph 6 in Schedule 5 of the Procurement Act 2023 to award the contract for the supply and support of the SampleManager software because, at this time, no alternative solution is available and any decision to deviate from this software would require a redevelopment of all Animal and Plant Health Agency models, therefore competition is absent for technical reasons.

Publication & Lifecycle

Open Contracting ID
ocds-h6vhtk-058aed
Publication Source
Find A Tender Service
Latest Notice
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/060848-2025
Current Stage
Award
All Stages
Award

Procurement Classification

Notice Type
UK7 - Contract Details Notice
Procurement Type
Standard
Procurement Category
Services
Procurement Method
Direct
Procurement Method Details
Direct award
Tender Suitability
SME
Awardee Scale
Large

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

CPV Divisions

72 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support


CPV Codes

72000000 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support

72212517 - IT software development services

Notice Value(s)

Tender Value
Not specified
Lots Value
Not specified
Awards Value
£462,143 £100K-£500K
Contracts Value
£462,143 £100K-£500K

Notice Dates

Publication Date
30 Sep 20254 months ago
Submission Deadline
Not specified
Future Notice Date
Not specified
Award Date
20 Aug 20256 months ago
Contract Period
2 Sep 2025 - 2 Sep 2026 6-12 months
Recurrence
Not specified

Notice Status

Tender Status
Complete
Lots Status
Complete
Awards Status
Active, Pending
Contracts Status
Active

Contracting Authority (Buyer)

Main Buyer
ANIMAL AND PLANT HEALTH AGENCY
Contact Name
Wendy Ukwu
Contact Email
wendy.ukwu@defra.gov.uk
Contact Phone
0207 764 3631

Buyer Location

Locality
LONDON
Postcode
SW1P 4DF
Post Town
South West London
Country
England

Major Region (ITL 1)
TLI London
Basic Region (ITL 2)
TLI3 Inner London - West
Small Region (ITL 3)
TLI35 Westminster and City of London
Delivery Location
Not specified

Local Authority
Westminster
Electoral Ward
St James's
Westminster Constituency
Cities of London and Westminster

Supplier Information

Number of Suppliers
2
Supplier Names

THERMO ELECTRON

THERMOFISHER SCIENTIFIC

Further Information

Notice Documents

Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS)

View full OCDS Record for this contracting process

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The Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) is a framework designed to increase transparency and access to public procurement data in the public sector. It is widely used by governments and organisations worldwide to report on procurement processes and contracts.

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