Ecology Surveys Framework

Description

Portsmouth Water is procuring a Framework Agreement for the provision of a range of ecology surveys throughout their operational area in Portsmouth, Hampshire and West Sussex. The services will be divided into 3 lots covering:
1.	Terrestrial Ecology
2.	Aquatic Ecology.
3.	Arboriculture
Terrestrial services will comprise a range of desk and field surveys to establish the presence or absence of species including bats, the hazel dormouse, otter, water vole, badger, amphibians, reptiles, butterflies and moths. The surveys will collect information on sites, site information, species records, habitat information and distribution including population forecasts. Other services to be provided will include surveys using the National Vegetation Classification and Biodiversity Net Gain. 
Aquatic services will comprise range of river and bankside surveys to provide habitat mapping and reporting. The surveys will include invertibrates, aquatic plants and fish. Surveys will include Modular River Physical Surveys, River Condition Assessments, habitat mapping, surveys of macroinvertibrates and macrophytes as well as water quality monitoring including laboratory analysis.
Arboricultural services to provide an arboricultural impact assessment, method statement and tree protection plan to record species, dimensions and quality of the trees on the various sites. Services of an arboriculturalist will also be required to monitor and supervise works as a watching brief during site clearance and construction. Services will include tree inspections and tree hazard assessments.
Other than the Pre-Qualification Pack and Pre-Qualification Questionnaire, the procurement documents published at the date of this Notice are in outline form, and Portsmouth Water reserves the right to amend, augment and supplement any document.
Portsmouth Water reserves the right at any time to cease the procurement process and not award any contract or to award only part of the opportunities described in this Notice. If Portsmouth Water takes up this right, then it will not be responsible for or required to pay the expenses or losses, which may be incurred by any organisation or Tenderer resulting therefrom. Except for the Framework Agreement and any subsequent Call-Off Contract (if any), concluded with the successful Tenderer(s), nothing in the procurement process shall create a contract, whether express or implied, between Portsmouth Water and any Applicant or Tenderer.
Portsmouth Water intends to select 5 Applicants to invite to tender for lot 1 and 4 Applicants for each of lots 2 & 3. 
Portsmouth Water may conduct the negotiations in successive stages in order to reduce the number of Tenders to be negotiated, by applying the award criteria specified in the Invitation to Tender. It reserves the right at any time to close negotiations and award the places on the Framework Agreement.
Portsmouth Water intends to award places on the Framework Agreement to the 3 highest scoring Tenderers in Lot 1 (Terrestrial Ecology) and the 2 highest scoring Tenderers to each of Lot 2 (Aquatic Ecology) and Lot 3 (Arboriculture), as assessed in accordance with the award criteria set out in this Tender Notice and the accompanying tender documents. 
Portsmouth Water undertakes to hold confidential any information provided in the proposal submitted, subject to its obligations under the law including Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR), the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), the UK General Data Protection Regulations (the UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (the DPA 2018). ) If an Applicant considers that any of the information submitted in the proposal should not be disclosed because of its sensitivity, then this should be stated with the reason for considering it sensitive in line with the data protection legislation outlined above. Portsmouth Water will then endeavour to consult with the Applicant about such sensitive information when considering any request for information (e.g. under the EIR or FOIA), before replying to such a request.
Portsmouth Water reserves the right to carry out additional financial checks on all Applicants bidding for this opportunity at any time during the procurement process. This is to ensure that they continue to meet its requirements and remain financially viable to fulfil the requirements under the proposed contracts.
The PIN published in relation to this procurement can be found at by searching the following on Find-A-Tender:
Notice identifier: 2025/S 000-001618
Procurement identifier (OCID): ocds-h6vhtk-04d3f9