Office for Product Safety and Standards- Testing of sunscreen to verify compliance with applicable standards

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS); Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) is an appointed market surveillance authority, responsible for (via the Secretary of State) enforcing the General Product Safety Regulations (GPSR) within the UK.

Suppliers are strongly encouraged to read the text at the following link in order to gain a full understanding of the enforcement services role within OPSS: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/national-regulation-enforcement-services

BEIS will carry out assessments and require testing to determine the current levels of compliance in the cosmetics sector, specifically sunscreen products in the UK in line with the retained Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 on Cosmetic Products and the Cosmetic Products Enforcement Regulations 2013.

To investigate sunscreen products to verify compliance with applicable standards.

The project aims to verify the product formulation for any unsafe chemicals, to confirm whether manufacturers accurately state the level of the claimed determination of full sunscreen protection/level of protection, and to determine the effectiveness of the products.

Main Testing Requirements

The retained Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 and the Cosmetic Products Enforcement Regulations 2013.

To perform testing on a selection of 10 sunscreen products to verify and determine level of compliance with the following above Regulations, and below standards (and any amendments to these).

It is expected the successful bidder will undertake skin testing on volunteers in order to fulfil this requirement as detailed within the technical specifications.

Please register your interest in submitting a tender for this project by signing up to our procurement platform Jaggaer. The Jaggaer platform allows for all ITT documents to be viewed and downloaded, bids to be submitted, and clarification questions asked. Please use this link: https://beisgroup.ukp.app.jaggaer.com/ to register on the platform. Click on "Register" under "View Our Live Opportunities". The ITT number for this requirement is itt_697. Any issues signing up to this platform, please email Cara Jenkins (Commercial Lead) at cara.jenkins@beis.gov.uk. This will ensure you receive immediate notification of updates to the ITT process or answers to questions raised by potential bidders.

Please read the instructions on the tendering procedures carefully since failure to comply with them may invalidate your tender. Your tender must be returned by Tuesday 21st February 2023.