TPAT TEMPEST Assurance

Description

The Secretary of State for Defence (the “Authority”), through the AJAX Programme within Defence Equipment and Support (“DE&S”) intends to place a contract with Malvern Optical Limited (“MOP”) for the Platform security accreditation and Initial Operating Capability (IOC) assurance The proposed contract will have a duration of 3 years and an estimated value of £500K and be placed as a supply of services contract.
As a covered procurement, this procurement falls to be regulated under the provisions of the Procurement Act 2023 (the “PA23”). It is considered that the direct award of the contract is lawful in accordance with section 41(1) and paragraph 6 of Schedule 5 of the PA23 because competition is absent for technical reasons such that only MOP can achieve the requirement and there is no reasonable alternative.
TEMPEST accreditation is required for platform security accreditation and assurance for IOC of the AJAX programme.. TEMPEST is a specialist field. Companies need to be accredited by the UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) Platform TEMPEST Accreditation Scheme (CPTAS) to carry out this security accreditation. MOP is the only NCSC accredited TEMPEST Evaluation Partner and test house for vehicles and there is no reasonable alternative to the TEMPEST service and therefore MOP is the only supplier capable of meeting the Authority’s requirement.