Purpose

This report seeks approval to commence a full procurement exercise for Public Analyst services.

Decision

For the reasons set out in this report, the Corporate Director has decided to:

1)    Approve the commencement of a full procurement process for the provision of Public Analyst services to support Port Health laboratory analysis.

Alternative options considered

Several alternative options have been considered:

·       Do nothing – This option is not recommended.  The Port Health service may not have access to the laboratory analysis needed to support official controls. This could affect the Council’s ability to assess sampled consignments, manage food safety risks and meet statutory responsibilities.

·       Use ad hoc laboratory services without a contract - This option is not recommended. It would give the Council less control over price, turnaround times, reporting standards, resilience and performance. It would be harder to demonstrate value for money and effective contract management. In addition, if such spot purchasing involved the same supplier repeatedly, the separate purchases could be aggregated for public procurement law purposes and may give rise to a legal requirement to formally procure the service in any event. As such, this is not an effective solution.

·       Provide the service in-house - This option is not recommended. Public Analyst services require specialist expertise, suitably qualified personnel, laboratory capacity and appropriate accreditation. This report does not seek approval to create or operate an in-house laboratory analysis service and doing so would be disproportionately expensive and certainly more costly than procuring the service from an established and reputable supplier.