This is a Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice to inform the market that Avon Fire Authority, operating as Avon Fire & Rescue Service, is intending to award a public contract by use of the negotiated procedure without prior publication, in accordance with Regulation 32 of The Public Contracts Regulations 2015.

The object of the public contract is the provision of financial services, which is a public service contract.

The general grounds are that the services can be supplied only by a particular economic operator, namely Bristol City Council, for the following reason:

‘Competition is absent for technical reasons’ – this is explained below in the ‘Description of the procurement’.

The Authority’s intention to award the contract is also covered by Regulation 72(1)(b) of The Public Contracts Regulations 2015 which allows for ‘modification of contracts during their term’ without a new procurement procedure due to ‘technical reasons’.

Avon Fire Authority, operating as Avon Fire & Rescue Service, is intending to award a public contract for the provision of financial services, in accordance with Regulation 32 of The Public Contracts Regulations 2015.

This decision is due to technical reasons, namely that we have a shared finance database and software solution, which has meant that additional services beyond March 2023, which were not included in the original tender from Bristol City Council (the sole bid received in 2018/2019), have become necessary, where a change of contractor, cannot be made at this time.

The current financial services contract with Bristol City Council expires in March 2023, however, the Service is currently in the process of a Finance Improvement Programme, including a move to devolved budgets, which will substantially change the Services’ financial services specification/requirements over the next 12-24 months. It is therefore not possible to attempt to ‘fix’ a financial services specification for a formal tender exercise at this time, as the Services’ requirements will be much clearer once the Finance Improvement Programme work is completed. The Service therefore intends to extend the current financial services contract with Bristol City Council for 2 years, until March 2025, to cover this period of change and during this period conduct a tender exercise which would cover new requirements identified during the Finance Improvement Programme. It is also possible that extending the contract timeline will also allow the Service an opportunity to investigate collaborative working opportunities, including sharing financial services, with another public sector organisation.

The Financial Services contract will therefore be extended until March 2025, to provide the services already outlined in the extant contract, including:

• Payroll and allowances

• Accounting

• Treasury Management

• Creditors, and

• General revenue services