- Id
- ocds-h6vhtk-0692b0
- Status
- complete
- Procurement Method
- direct
- Procurement Method Details
- Direct award
- Why this procedure was chosen
- Statutory justification - Section 42 Procurement Act 2023 (Protection of life or health)
This direct award to existing suppliers is made in reliance on Section 42 of the Procurement Act 2023, on the basis that the services concerned are necessary for the protection of life and health.
The contract relates to the provision of rail specific occupational health and medical assessments for colleagues undertaking safety critical roles, including train drivers, signallers, controllers, and other operationally critical positions. These services form a core component of the organisation's safety management system and are essential to the safe operation of the railway and the protection of passengers, employees, and members of the public.
The assessments support compliance with applicable railway standards, safety legislation, and regulatory expectations.
Requirement for Rail Specific Medical Expertise
The assessment of colleagues in safety critical rail roles requires specialist clinical expertise specific to the rail industry and cannot be safely or effectively substituted by general occupational health provision.
Rail specific medical professionals are required to assess fitness for duty against railway safety standards, with a focus on the prevention of sudden incapacitation, sustained vigilance, cognitive performance, fatigue tolerance, and the safe management of medical conditions and medications within a high risk operational environment. This includes detailed evaluation of cardiovascular health, vision, hearing, neurological risk, mental health, and the impact of prescribed or over the counter medications on safety critical performance.
Decisions arising from these assessments are safety certifications and may be subject to scrutiny in incident investigations, regulatory review, or formal inquiry. Accordingly, they require demonstrable competence in rail safety standards and operational context to ensure decisions are robust, defensible, and proportionate.
. The service is delivered by clinicians with specific rail competence and is embedded within existing safety assurance processes, role standards, and operational interfaces.
The authority requires continuity of access to clinicians with demonstrable rail specific competence who are embedded within existing safety assurance processes, governance arrangements, and operational interfaces. Any disruption to this continuity presents a risk to fitness for duty decision making for safety critical staff.
Introducing an alternative provider at this stage would present unacceptable safety, operational, and compliance risk.
On this basis, the authority considers the direct award to existing suppliers necessary and proportionate to ensure the protection of life and health and to maintain railway safety pending a future competitive procurement exercise.
Inability to run a competitive process at this time
While the authority intends to undertake a regulated procurement exercise within the next 18 months, it does not consider that even an accelerated or light touch competitive process can be undertaken at this point without creating unacceptable risk to safety and regulatory compliance.
The mobilisation of a new provider, including clinical governance alignment, rail competency validation, system access, data migration, and integration with safety critical operational processes, would need to occur in parallel with live medical delivery. The authority considers that running such activity concurrently with ongoing safety critical assessments would materially increase the risk of service disruption and undermine the protection of life or health for safety critical workers.
Cost of Change Rationale
The considerations set out below are not relied upon as independent legal grounds for this direct award but. They are included solely to provide operational context and to explain why continuity of the existing service supports the authority's ability to maintain safety critical medical coverage during the interim period.
A comprehensive assessment of the cost of change has been undertaken. This assessment concluded that transitioning to an alternative supplier would result in significant additional cost and risk when compared with the continuation of the incumbent arrangement.
Costs associated with change would include, but not be limited to:
• Exit and replacement costs from the current supplier
• Procurement and mobilisation activity for a replacement provider, a regulated tender exercise will be completed and in place by 30th September 2027
• Clinician accreditation and rail specific competency validation
• Data migration and system reconfiguration, currently being provided and shared by GWR and the medical personnel.
• Internal resourcing, training, GWR Occupational Health team are low in numbers and are not able to support a Procurement in the short term.
• Risk of service disruption impacting safety critical medical coverage
In addition to direct financial costs, there would be a material risk of reduced service continuity, delayed medical assessments, and potential operational impact arising from transition/regulated tender activity.
When considered alongside the safety and health risks identified above, the cumulative operational impact associated with transition activity reinforces the importance of maintaining uninterrupted service delivery during the interim period.
The continuation of this contract ensures:
• Ongoing provision of rail specific, safety critical medical expertise
• Compliance with railway safety standards and regulatory expectations
• Continuity of service for operationally critical roles
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This Transparency Notice is issued in the interests of openness and compliance with public sector procurement transparency requirements.
This Transparency Notice is published in good faith to explain the authority's reliance on Section 42 of the Procurement Act 2023 and does not seek to rely on grounds of urgency or technical exclusivity.