Please Add a Brief Description of Goods Or Services You Are Buying

/ CABINET OFFICE SPEND CONTROLS
CONSULTANCY CONTROL / V1.1
April 2018

REQUEST FORM

This form should be used for Consultancy Spend requests. The control applies for Consultancy transactions of £1M or above.

Please see for further guidance.

Underlined terms are defined in the Definitions section at the end of this form.

Department Reference
Previous CO approvals / related requests (HMG Reference)
Department/Parent Department / Please Select BEISCODCMSDEFRADfEDFIDDfTDHSCDITDWPFCOHMRCHMTHOMHCLGMODMOJONSOther
Department Division or Arms Length Body (if applicable)
Wider Project / Programme
(if applicable)
Contract Name
Category of Spend / Please Select FinanceIT/ISStrategyLegalHuman Resource, Training & EducationMarketing and CommsOrganisation & Change ManagementProcurementPPMProperty and ConstructionTechnical
Business Case Stage / Please Select OBCFBC
Control Request Type / Please Select ProcureAwardExtend

Please add a brief description of goods or services you are buying:

Total Duration of Contract, excluding extension:
(number of months e.g. 8)
Start Date
(format XX/XX/XXXX) / End Date (w/o extensions)
(format XX/XX/XXXX) / Total Value
(£)

CONTRACT SUMMARY INFORMATION

Financial Year Spend (£):

Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Year 4
Future years
Options to Extend? / Please Select Yes, costedYes, but uncostedNo option to extend
Spend listed on Department Pipeline? / Please Select YesNo

APPROVALS

Department
Final
Approval / Name
Role
Email
Contract Owner/SRO / Name
Role
Email
Submitting Departmental Contact / Name
Role
Email
Did an Approvals Board approve this? / Please Select YesNo
Which Board? / Type In

PROCUREMENT ROUTE

Sourcing Route: / Please Select OJEUFrameworkOther
If Government Framework, which one? / Type In
If OJEU, which procedure? / Please Select OpenRestrictedCompetative DialogueNegotiated ProcedureOther
Is this a request to Direct Award? / Please Select YesNo
Is this a Retrospective Request? / Please Select YesNo
Is this an Unwarranted Extension? / Please Select YesNo
Has there been a Prior Information Notice or Market Engagement? / Please Select PINEMEPIN & EMENoneNot applicable
Have there been any previous failed competitions linked to this request? / Please Select YesNo
Was Lotting Used or Considered? / Please Select UsedConsidered but not usedNot ConsideredNot Applicable
Number of Bidders? e.g. 12
(at Procure stage=Predicted, at Award=Actual)

Incumbent Supplier(s): name(s); N/A if applicable:

Potential/Preferred Bidder(s): name(s)

PLEASE ATTACH THE RATES TABLE

Please attach a table of rates when returning this form via email.

The rates table should be broken down by grade, showing any discounts against framework maximum and the number (or anticipated number) of units at each grade. This table should show how the total business case value is broken down.

(This may be submitted separately as an xl file.)

Please also detail the level of contingency included with this request (if any).

Please also complete the appropriate section below.

PROCURE OR EXTENSION REQUESTS

Requirement summary

Insert a summary describing the requirement and why consultants are needed. Include any relevant background or history of previous approvals relating to this requirement. Outline any spend to date.

Outline the work that is to be undertaken by the consultants

List the Activities.

Is this a requirement for consultancy of operational necessity?

State clearly why this support is of operational necessity. Justify the requirement for external support.

Is there clear business and financial justification for the contract duration?Explain the financial justification for the use of consultants? What savings and will they deliver?

Has the use of internal staff been considered?

State the activities undertaken to show consideration of using internal staff. Why can’t this requirement be fulfilled in-house?

If there is a repeat need to use consultants for this requirement, is this issue being addressed?

Is it likely that there will be a repeat need for this type of support? State what is being done, where possible, to reduce reliance on external support. If nothing is being done, why it is not possible to?

Is contract exit being managed, lessons captured and skills transferred?Provide details of how benefits, lessons learned, knowledge and skills will be captured. This should refer to formalised plans with clear parameters and specific measurable.

Is the procurement strategy appropriate to the requirement and the need to drive VFM?

Will the sourcing route provide sufficient competitive tension to drive taxpayer VfM? Provide details of how you will evaluate suppliers. If this is an extension what has been done to benchmark prices?

Will payments be linked to clear deliverables and/or milestones?

Describe the deliverables/milestones that payment is to be made against how payment is to be released (i.e. % of payment to be released against milestones/deliverables). If payment is on a time and materials basis, provide justification explain how the contract will be managed to ensure VfM.

AWARD REQUESTS

Assessment

Include information that summarises the result of the competition, including: What procurement process / framework was allowed? Was a mini competition held? Has VfM been achieved & how? Have rates been discounted?

Conditions

Complete, if applicable, with any prior conditions applied to this spend.

Bid Evaluation

Provide Department and Roles of those who evaluated the tenders and the assessment criteria and weightings used.

Discounted alternative options

If alternative bidders were less expensive, on what basis were they not chosen?

Basis for selecting the Consultant(s)

Provide details of the final evaluation and any modification that took place.

Bidder Quality and Quantity

Was the number and quality of bids as expected at the start of the procurement? Please provide details of early market engagement etc

Contract Management and VfM

How is the contract going to be managed to ensure VfM? Will payments be linked to clear deliverables and/or milestones?

Further Information

Include any other relevant points that are specific to this request.

DEFINITIONS
Term / What this means in relation to controls
Approvals Board / A Departmental Commercial Assurance Board, Investment Board or equivalent that scrutinises all commercial strategies and associated risks, and provides approval before the strategy is executed.
Business Case Stage / As outlined in the Annex 4, the stages represent where in the process the approvals has reached.
Category of Spend / Category which best describes the goods/services being procured.
Contract Owner / Name of the senior officer responsible for overseeing this category, contract and / or transaction.
Direct Award / Contract is awarded to a supplier without any competition.
Early Engagement / Initial discussions with the Commercial Continiuous Improvement Team with regards to this request prior to submission.
Early Market Engagement / Engagement with the supplier market prior to issue of procurement notice. This could be conducted through Supplier Days, trade shows, webex conference etc.
FBC / Full Business Case - Prior to contract award.
Government Framework / Use of a government approved framework to tender this work, for example, a CCS Framework (This is usually the preffered route to market).
HMG Reference / This is a unique CO controls reference number generated for each request.
Lotting / Lotting is whereby a contract or transaction is divided into sub categories and can be awarded in parts and to various suppliers.
OBC / Outline Business Case - Prior to issuing procurement documents.
OJEU / The Official Journal of the European Union is the publication in which all tenders from the public sector which are valued above a certain financial threshold must be published.
Options to Extend / An option to extend beyond the initial length stated of a contract.
Previous CO Approvals / Any previous CO Approvals related to this case. If so, please include the HMG reference number.
Prior Information Notice / A Prior Information Notice (PIN) is a contract notice that allows public bodies to publicise a possible future opportunity to the market and to briefly set out the characteristics of an opportunity.
Request Type / There are three types of consultancy requests
i)Procure – for new contracts pre-tender;
ii)Award - for new contracts pre-award;
iii)Extend - where an extension to a current contract is being requested.
Retrospective / Where an organisation has committed expenditure or commenced commercial transactional activity without the necessary Cabinet Office approval.
Unwarranted Extension / A warranted extension is one that was considered in good time such that conducting a full procurement was still a viable option, and that the extension was deemed to deliver better commercial benefits than the other options considered.
Wider Programme / A wider government programme or initiative which this transaction is part of.

Please return the completed form + Rates table via email to