Published date: 24 October 2024

Awarded contract - This means that the contract has been awarded to a supplier.


Closing: 14 October 2024, 12pm

Contract summary

Industry

  • Research and development consultancy services - 73200000

Location of contract

Any region

Value of contract

£79,289

Procurement reference

CF-0387200D8d000003VQwdEAG

Published date

24 October 2024

Closing date

14 October 2024

Closing time

12pm

Contract start date

21 October 2024

Contract end date

20 March 2025

Contract type

Service contract

Procedure type

Call-off from a framework agreement

A mini-competition or direct purchase from a pre-established framework agreement.

Contract is suitable for SMEs?

Yes

Contract is suitable for VCSEs?

Yes

Description

PFAS are a very large and chemically diverse group of synthetic fluorinated organic chemicals,
widely used in industrial applications and consumer items. They are extremely persistent in the
environment. Some PFAS bioaccumulate and are harmful to human health, with reported effects
including reproductive and developmental effects and impaired immune function.
In the UK, available monitoring data for surface waters indicates significant environmental
contamination by variable and complex mixtures of PFAS, especially in locations near sites with high
PFAS use and release such as airports and PFAS manufacturing and formulation sites.
Understanding the impact of PFAS on the environment and on human health via environmental
exposure is a rapidly developing area of research. Whilst a few PFAS, such as PFOA, are relatively
well studied, the majority of PFAS lack sufficient data to fully identify and characterise their hazards.
Additionally, there is uncertainty over how to assess mixture toxicity for this group of substances.
Development of adequately robust approaches for identifying and characterising the hazards for both
individual PFAS and mixtures are an urgent need globally, as regulators and the scientific research
community strive to interpret the significance of environmental PFAS concentrations measured and
determine acceptable environmental thresholds for regulatory risk management action.
In the UK, there is currently an Environmental Quality Standard (EQS) for PFOS, which is used in the
regulation of discharges of water. However, there is an operational need for robust, evidence-based
thresholds for additional PFAS to assist the Environment Agency to manage environmental risk from
other PFAS, either as individual chemicals or as a group. This includes those PFAS frequently
detected in the water environment, for example, PFBS, PFHxS, PFHxA and PFPeA.
Several approaches for determining regulatory thresholds for PFAS have been proposed globally by
regulatory authorities. This includes thresholds for individual PFAS as well as groups of PFAS. A
recent example is a proposal published by the EU to use the Relative Potency Factor (RPF)
approach to derive an EQS for 24 PFAS (EU, 2024)*. Varying approaches have been taken when
deriving such thresholds to deal with the existing knowledge gaps on the hazardous properties of
PFAS.
We require a review of the existing regulatory and research landscape to establish a robust scientific
understanding of knowledge globally on approaches to standard setting for PFAS. This is needed to
inform our future approach to derive robust regulatory thresholds for PFAS in England including
future EQS derivation for PFAS.

Award information

Awarded date

8 October 2024

Contract start date

21 October 2024

Contract end date

20 March 2025

Total value of contract

£79,289

This contract was awarded to 1 supplier.

Jacobs UK Ltd

Address

Cottons Centre, Cottons Lane, London Bridge SE1 2QG

Reference

None

Supplier is SME?

Yes

About the buyer

Contact name

Adrian Ajibade

Address

17 Smith Square
London
SW1P 3JR
UK

Email

adrian.ajibade@defra.gov.uk