---
title: "The provision of freight services for the supply of personal protective equipment medical equipment"
ocid: "ocds-h6vhtk-02876d"
canonical_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-02876d"
markdown_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-02876d.md"
json_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-02876d.json"
source: "Find A Tender Service"
current_stage: "Award"
buyer: "DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE"
published: "2021-01-04"
---

# The provision of freight services for the supply of personal protective equipment medical equipment

Buyer: DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE  
Current stage: Award  
OCID: ocds-h6vhtk-02876d

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## Summary

The procurement process detailed herein relates to the Department of Health and Social Care, which sought freight services for the supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) and medical equipment in response to COVID-19. The tender, titled "The provision of freight services for the supply of personal protective equipment medical equipment," fell under the services category, specifically classified as freight transport agency services. The procurement method employed was a limited procedure, involving an award without prior publication of a call for competition, under extreme urgency to address an unforeseeable demand. The contract was awarded to Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd, with an active status since it was signed on 3rd June 2020, and has a total value of £2,340,000. The delivery location specified is within the UK.

This tender represents a significant opportunity for businesses engaged in logistics and transport, particularly those specialising in air freight services, to contribute to critical supply chains during public health emergencies. Given the urgent and high-demand nature of the contract, businesses that have operational capability for rapid response logistics and established networks in aviation freight would be particularly well-suited to compete in similar future tenders. As the demand for efficient freight solutions continues, companies prepared to offer innovative and expedited service will likely find ample avenues for growth in public procurement initiatives within the health sector.

## Notice

The provision of freight services for the supply of personal protective equipment and medical equipment

### Lot Information

Lot 1

Direct Award under Reg 32 of the Public Contracts Regulation 2015 for COVID-19 response

### Procurement Information

1. The consequences of not responding rapidly to the pandemic to meet the exceptional increases in demand for PPE to protect care providers and key workers, and medical products to treat patients, would be a significant excess illness and deaths in the UK.2. Huge increases in global demand, export restrictions from various nation states all contributed to a shortage of product availability. Where product could be sourced it was imperative that this product was moved at the earliest opportunity to prevent it being sold to higher bidders.3. The urgent need for PPE and medical products in the UK created a requirement for the fastest mode of transport. Air freight transit times were in the region of 4-5 days whereas sea freight was between 56-84 days.4. The disruption to freight and exports from China following their lockdown and export restrictions led to the severely restricted availability of freight capacity.5. The market for air freight was particularly disrupted by the cancellation of many scheduled passenger airline flights (removing significant air freight capacity from the market). This created a situation where there was severe lack of physical air freight capacity and dramatic cost inflation in this market.6. No pre existing government commercial agreements were identified which covered the nature and scale of the services required.7. This contract was awarded to Virgin Atlantic to meet a specific urgent need to transport PPE to the UK, utilising flights from China to UK during June 2020.The Department is content the tests permitting use of the Negotiated procedure without prior publication (Regulation 32(2)(c)) are met:1) Air freight charters was identified as strictly necessary to meet anticipated demand.2) It is responding to COVID-19 immediately because of public health risks presenting a genuine emergency.3) The events that led to the need for extreme urgency were unforeseeable: The Commission itself confirmed: "The current coronavirus crisis presents an extreme and unforeseeable urgency - precisely for such a situation our European rules enable public buyers to buy within a matter of days, even hours, if necessary.""4) There was no time to run an accelerated procurement under the open, restricted or competitive procedures with negotiation that would secure services within the required timescales.5) The situation is not attributable to the contracting authority: It has not done anything to cause or contribute to the need for extreme urgency

## Key Details

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication source | Find A Tender Service |
| Latest notice | https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/000039-2021 |
| Notice type | Award Notice |
| Procurement type | Standard |
| Procurement category | Services |
| Procurement method | Limited |
| Procurement method details | Award procedure without prior publication of a call for competition |
| Tender suitability | Not specified |
| Awardee scale | Large |
| All stages | Award |

## Dates

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication date | 4 Jan 2021 |
| Submission deadline | Not specified |
| Future notice date | Not specified |
| Award date | 2 Jun 2020 |
| Contract period | Not specified |
| Recurrence | Not specified |

## Values

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender value | Not specified |
| Lots value | Not specified |
| Awards value | Not specified |
| Contracts value | £2,340,000 |

## Status

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender status | Complete |
| Lots status | Cancelled |
| Awards status | Active |
| Contracts status | Active |

## Buyer

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Main buyer | DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE |
| Locality | LONDON |
| Post town | South West London |
| Postcode | SW1H 0EU |
| Country | England |
| ITL 1 | TLI London |
| ITL 2 | TLI3 Inner London - West |
| ITL 3 | TLI35 Westminster and City of London |
| Local authority | Westminster |
| Electoral ward | St James's |
| Westminster constituency | Cities of London and Westminster |
| Delivery location | Not specified |

## Supplier

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Number of suppliers | 1 |
| Supplier names | VIRGIN ATLANTIC AIRWAYS |

## CPV Codes

### Divisions

- 63 - Supporting and auxiliary transport services; travel agencies services

### Codes

- 63521000 - Freight transport agency services

## Release History

- 4 Jan 2021 at 14:55 - Award - Award Notice - https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/000039-2021

## Notice URLs

- https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-of-health-and-social-care

## Provenance

This Markdown file is an alternate public rendering of the D3 Tenders contract record. The canonical page is https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-02876d. The underlying structured data is available as OCDS JSON at https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-02876d.json.