MPS Stables - Supply & Delivery Of Feed, Forage & Bedding

The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) is seeking to enter a new contract for the supply of feed, forage and bedding for its horses within the MPS Mounted Branch.

The MPS has an obligation to make sure the horses receive a high standard of care in order to reduce the number of days they are unable to be worked. This helps to prevent health related issues and avoids the expenditure for veterinary services. By ensuring the MPS has healthy livestock, the Mounted Branch can maximise capability for the 110 horses and provide the highest level of support possible to boroughs.

The MPS wishes to tender for the purpose of creating the new contract over two lots with a capable supplier or suppliers, commencing 1st June 2020, for an initial term of 36 months with the option to extend for further periods up to 24 months.

This decision sets out the procurement process, the contract terms and the budget available to finance the contract.

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to:

1. Approve the action for an Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) open tender for the Supply & Delivery of Feed, Forage & Bedding for MPS Horses and Stables. The contract, to be let over 2 lots, will be for a maximum value of £2m over 5 years (3+2), costing £400k per annum and will be funded from existing MPS approved revenue budgets.

2. Delegate the approval to the award of contract(s) to the Director of Commercial Services where the most economically advantageous tender is within the budget.

1. Introduction and background

1.1. The MPS have approximately 110 horses at eight stables around London located at Great Scotland Yard, Hyde Park, Hammersmith, West Hampstead, Bow Road, Kings Cross, Lewisham and Imber Court (Surrey).

1.2. The MPS horses perform a variety of policing support roles from anti-crime patrols throughout London, to providing security escorts for military units for various ceremonial events, providing serials for numerous sporting events and public order events.

1.3. The term of the contract will be an initial term of 36 months and includes options to extend by further periods up to a maximum of 24 months. This is devised to give an element of commitment to providers and to provide the MPS with flexibility.

1.4. This supply of quality feed, forage and bedding will ensure the health of the horses and extend the working life of each animal, ensuring the longevity of their working lives. This ensures the MPS achieves the best possible return on the investment and reduces the cost of lost working days. In addition, care for the horses can act as a preventative to ill health and can reduce the associated expenditure within veterinary care costs. As an example; colic and general loss of conditioning can cost £30 for an initial examination plus medication and any subsequent visits are at additional cost (in very severe cases where surgery is required it can cost over £3000).

2. Issues for consideration

2.1. The MPS has an obligation to make sure the horses receive a high standard of care to reduce the number of days that are unable to be worked or the expenditure for veterinary services and related costs by preventing health related issues.

2.2. By ensuring healthy livestock, the MPS Mounted Branch can maximise capability for deployments across the for the 110 horses within the MPS, therefore providing the highest level of support possible to boroughs for crime reduction, security for Counter Terrorism threats and public order and sporting events.

2.3. Organic straw bedding is currently used with waste from the horses being used on local community allotments and the rest is composted at a mass compost site. There will be efforts to reduce packaging and for the supplier to use more recycled content within products.

3. Financial Comments

3.1. This paper seeks approval to tender for a new contract to provide feed, forage & bedding for MPS Stables, at a maximum value of £2m over the 5-year period. The existing revenue budget is £400k per year, which equates to £2m over 5 years.

4. Legal Comments

4.1. The Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) is a contracting authority as defined in the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (the Regulations). When awarding public contracts for goods and services valued at £181,302 or above, all contracting authorities must do so in accordance with the Regulations. This report confirms the value of the requirement is £2m. Notwithstanding that it is unlikely there will be any cross-border interest in these services, Forage and Feed services are categorised as falling within the full application of the Regulations.

4.2. The full procurement process will be undertaken by Commercial Services in accordance with the Regulations. Paragraph 4.13 of the MOPAC Scheme of Delegation and Consent requires that approval is obtained by the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime (DMPC) for all requests to go out to tender for contracts of £500,000 or above.

4.3. The Directorate of Legal Services have been fully engaged throughout this process. The proposed contract will be procured in accordance with Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (the Regulations).

5. Commercial Comments

5.1. The procurement will be an open Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) process.

6. GDPR and Data Privacy

6.1. The MPS is subject to the requirements and conditions placed on it as a 'State' body to comply with the European Convention of Human Rights and the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018. Both legislative requirements place an obligation on the MPS to process personal data fairly and lawfully in order to safeguard the rights and freedoms of individuals.

6.2. Under Article 35 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Section 57 of the DPA 2018, Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIA) become mandatory for organisations with technologies and processes that are likely to result in a high risk to the rights of the data subjects.

6.3. The Information Assurance and Information Rights units within MPS will be consulted at all stages to ensure the programme/project meets its compliance requirements. The programme/project does not use personally identifiable data of members of the public, so there are no GDPR issues to be considered.

7. Equality Comments

7.1. There are no direct Equality implications arising from this report

8. Background/supporting papers

8.1. Business Justification paper.