Published date: 12 June 2025

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


Closing: 17 April 2025, 12pm

Contract summary

Industry

  • Research and development services and related consultancy services - 73000000

  • Research and development consultancy services - 73200000

  • Training services - 80500000

Location of contract

YO1 7PR

Value of contract

£72,000

Procurement reference

CF-3070100D0O000000rwimUAA

Published date

12 June 2025

Closing date

17 April 2025

Closing time

12pm

Contract start date

1 May 2025

Contract end date

31 March 2026

Contract type

Not applicable

Procedure type

Single tender action (below threshold)

A direct contract with a single supplier, without competition.

This procedure can be used for procurements below the relevant contract value threshold.

Contract is suitable for SMEs?

Yes

Contract is suitable for VCSEs?

Yes

Description

The Food Safety Act 1990 requires LAs to appoint PAs for chemical and compositional food sampling in a legal context and provide a CoA which is admissible as evidence in criminal proceedings. The MChemA qualification needed to become a PA is rightly challenging to achieve as it ensures extensive knowledge in chemical analysis and competence in providing an expert legal opinion on the quality, safety and probity of food.
A lack of PAs means that analyses that require the PA to undertake the test themselves, due to requiring specialised training, will have a very limited capacity. Moreover, PA OLs who lose their PA due to retirement, or fail to appoint one, will lose their ability to test samples under the Food Safety Act 1990 leading to an inability for them to take enforcement action.
Funding the training and continued professional development (CPD) of PAs and providing funding to backfill desk analyst roles in the laboratory could improve capacity and capability in PA OLs as outlined in the FSA Board Paper 2022. Providing such a succession plan will guarantee the future of the PA profession and the PA OL system.

More information

Attachments

Award information

Awarded date

10 June 2025

Contract start date

1 May 2025

Contract end date

31 March 2026

Total value of contract

£59,996.22

This contract was awarded to 1 supplier.

LGC Group

Address

Queens Road, Teddington, TW11 0LY

Reference

None

About the buyer

Contact name

FSA Commercial

Address

Food Standards Agency
York
YO1 7PR
United Kingdom

Email

fsa.commercial@food.gov.uk