Decision details

Procurement legislation requires GMP to tender for these goods and services. The recommended route provides the most effective route to market.

Approval is given to tender, and subsequently award the contract for the supply of General Patrol Body Armour via a Mini Competition under Lot 1 of the Bluelight Commercial Framework for the Provision of General Patrol Body Armour and Firearms Body Armour.

The contract value will be for 5 years, with the option to extend for a further 2 years. The likely value of 7 years spend would be circa £7 million.

Due to the very limited and specialised scope of these requirements, the market itself is quite limited.

There is an option to utilise the NUMS Lite contract which in comparison to the Bluelight Commercial framework does not provide value for money as the contract includes a service charge on all items purchased due to being supplied through DHL.

The only other alternative to the Bluelight framework was an ESPO Framework for Emergency Services Workwear which included Body Armour, however this expired on 6th September 2023 with no further provisions to extend and the replacement for this framework is not due to be in place until the end of September at the earliest.