Framework for Archaeology Services at Transport Scotland

Tender description

Transport Scotland intends to undertake a public procurement competition for the provision of Archaeology Services, which are required on Transport Scotland projects. The services comprise of Invasive Archaeology Services, Non-Invasive Archaeology Services, and Advisory Services. Over the forthcoming years, there a number of projects which shall require such archaeological services. These include, but are not limited to: - A9 Dualling Programme; and - A96 Dualling Programme Due to the repeat need for these services, coupled with the exact requirement and timings being unknown, it is considered that these services would be best met through the use of a framework agreement. Furthermore, due to the nature and quantum of the services it is intended that the services will be divided into 3 lots: - Lot 1 – Advisory Services; - Lot 2 – Low Value ‘Non-invasive and Invasive Investigations’ and ‘Post Excavation Services’ (contract values <100k GBP) - Lot 3 – High Value ‘Non-invasive and Invasive Investigations’ and ‘Post Excavation Services’ (contract values >100k GBP) Following an analysis of future spend, the current estimated spend values per lot is as follows: - Lot 1, 5M GBP - Lot 2, 0.25M GBP - Lot 3, 21M GBP Transport Scotland is an agency of the Scottish Government and contracts in the name of and on behalf of the Scottish Ministers. Transport Scotland will conduct the proposed procurement process on behalf of the Scottish Ministers. Lot 1: Lot 1 – Technical Advisory Services Archaeological professional/technical advisory services, of which may comprise: i) Advising Transport Scotland on legislation, good industry practice and the processes and procedures which are required to be adhered to when conducting non-invasive and invasive investigations, and post excavation services; ii) Development and drafting of procurement and/or contract documents; iii) Advising Transport Scotland on appropriate form and conditions of contracts to be adopted, understanding the pitfalls of different types of contracts; and iv) Support Transport Scotland in the management of archaeological contracts, addressing both technical and commercial issues. The supplier will be procured through the restricted procedure, a procedure under the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015. This is a two-stage procedure, comprising a prequalification stage and a tender stage. This Contract Notice and ESPD sets out the prequalification stage and Section II.2.9 of this Contract Notice describes the criteria for prequalifying the limited number of candidates to be taken forward to tender stage. In order to be considered for this procurement competition, economic operators must complete and submit an ESPD, which can be downloaded via the Public Contracts Scotland portal (www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk). It is anticipated that a total of 5 economic operators will be invited to tender stage for Lot 1 and that the 3 most economically advantageous tenderers will be awarded onto the framework agreement.