Life Technologies - Supply of Covid-19 Consumables

The Government must protect the health and well-being of UK citizens. The COVID-19 outbreak is a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) as declared by the World Health Organisation on 30 Jan 2020. The WHO Director General characterised COVID-19 as a pandemic on 11 Mar 2020.

A key element of ensuring an effective response to the pandemic is ensuring that there are sufficient NHS key workers available to deliver frontline NHS services. Public Health England guidance (based on expert medical opinion) states that if an individual has COVID-19 they must self-isolate for seven days; or if a member of their household has COVID-19 they must self-isolate for fourteen days.

In practice, these rules mean that on a day-to-day basis, many frontline staff, including in the NHS and carers, are unable to work due to needing to self-isolate - despite the possibility that they are not infected with COVID-19.

This is why on 27 March 2020, the Government announced major plans to rapidly expand the volume of COVID-19 testing available for NHS and other Key Workers outside of the NHS system - with the aim of getting as many non-infected staff back to work as soon as they are able. A key element of these plans is testing of Key Workers in the first instance before rolling out more widely. This represents Pillar 2 of the Testing Strategy communicated and implemented by the Government.

COVID-19 is serious and its consequences pose a risk to life. Cabinet Office published PPN 01/20: Responding to COVID-19 on procuring with extreme urgency which states that contracting authorities may enter into contracts without competing or advertising the requirement where certain tests are met, as follows:

1. There are genuine reasons for extreme urgency as there is a significant public health risk requiring immediate action as a result of COVID-19.
2. The COVID-19 outbreak and its consequences are unprecedented and the Contracting Authority could not have reasonably foreseen either of these.
3. It is not possible to comply with the timescales of another procedure due to the urgent requirement to obtain the testing kits and associated services being contracted for. It is imperative that testing is quickly and securely mobilised and for the service to be provided on a nationwide scale for Key Workers rapidly.
4. The COVID 19 pandemic and its consequences are not attributable to the Contracting Authority.

Additional information: Central procurement to support Covid-19 laboratory testing across key NHS, Public Health England and recently commissioned "Lighthouse Lab" facilities.