- Id
- C437171
- Status
- complete
- Procurement Method
- direct
- Procurement Method Details
- Direct award
- Why this procedure was chosen
- The Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn NHS Foundation Trust is progressing enabling electrical infrastructure works to facilitate delivery of a new, fully electric acute hospital serving the King’s Lynn and West Norfolk community. These works are essential to ensure continuity of healthcare services and the safe replacement of an existing hospital estate significantly affected by reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC).
The scope comprises the delivery of a new 25MVA electrical connection derived from two diverse 33kV supplies, including reinforcement of the local electricity distribution network, installation of new high‑voltage equipment within live grid substations, and approximately 10km of 33kV cabling routed through constrained urban corridors, including interfaces with Network Rail infrastructure and traffic‑sensitive highways.
UK Power Networks (UKPN) is the licensed Distribution Network Operator (DNO) for the region and the statutory undertaker responsible for the ownership, operation, and adoption of the electricity distribution network. While certain elements of electricity connection works are theoretically contestable, the Trust has concluded that, for this specific scope, a direct award is justified.
The Trust is relying on Schedule 5, paragraph 6 of the Procurement Act 2023, on the basis that, due to the technical characteristics, scale, safety requirements and asset adoption obligations associated with the 33kV works, effective competition is absent for technical reasons and no reasonable alternative delivery approach exists.
In reaching this position, the Trust sought independent technical advice from Mott MacDonald (December 2025) to assess the scale, complexity, delivery risks and feasibility of alternative delivery models for the 33kV works.
The Trust position is supported by Mott MacDonald's advice, which assessed both a split‑delivery model involving an Independent Connection Provider (ICP) and a single‑provider model delivered entirely by the DNO. That advice identified that the scale, voltage level, integration requirements and interface complexity of a 33kV installation of this nature make it challenging to identify alternative providers capable of delivering the full scope safely, compliantly, and within programme constraints.
Key considerations which have been taken into account by the Trust include:
1) The works require live interventions within existing operational UKPN grid substations and must comply with UKPN’s statutory design, installation, testing and commissioning standards prior to adoption.
2) Any split delivery between an ICP and the DNO would introduce additional design approvals, witnessing, interface risk, and potential disputes at asset handover, with UKPN retaining ultimate responsibility for network safety and future operation.
3) The cable routes traverse constrained environments, including Network Rail interfaces, listed‑building adjacencies, and traffic‑sensitive highways subject to Section 58 of the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991 (restrictions on works following substantial road works), where UKPN’s statutory undertaker rights and local network knowledge materially reduce delivery and permitting risk.
4) The enabling works sit on the critical path to energisation of the new hospital. Independent advice confirms the presence of long‑lead items with lead times of up to 12–24 months, meaning delayed commitment or undertaking a procurement exercise would pose a real risk to timely delivery of key infrastructure for a much needed healthcare facility.
The electrical infrastructure is required not only to serve the completed hospital but also to enable a transitional period in which the existing hospital remains operational until decant, at a time when its current electrical capacity is already close to exhaustion and no further local reinforcement is available without significant network works.
In making its decision, the Trust has had regard to the objectives set out in S.12 of the Procurement Act 2023. A competitive procurement of part or all of the works would not be expected to deliver effective competition or value for money once duplication of design, approvals, supervision, testing and programme risk is taken into account, and would expose the Trust to a materially increased risk of delay to a nationally important healthcare project with direct patient and public safety implications.
The Trust has taken these known risks and associated management arrangements into account when determining the appropriate procurement approach. Direct award to the licensed Distribution Network Operator enables these risks to be managed within a single, integrated delivery model, with clear asset adoption accountability and statutory network responsibilities. The Trust recognises that, should one or more of the known risks identified in the Contract Details section materialise, changes to scope, sequencing or value may be required, and this notice is intended to provide transparency in respect of those foreseeable circumstances.
The Trust has therefore concluded that direct award of the enabling works to UKPN represents a proportionate, justified and lawful approach under the Procurement Act 2023, consistent with the public interest, the need to maintain continuity of NHS services, and the imperative to replace a RAAC‑affected hospital estate within a fixed and non‑extendable timeframe.