RFI - Fulfilment Partner for Surge and Pandemic Response

Description

1. The purpose of this document is to enhance the Authority’s understanding of the marketplace and its options for sourcing for a potential future requirement. 2. The issuance of this request for information (RFI) does not constitute a sourcing exercise nor will the Authority pay any costs incurred in the preparation of a response to this RFI. 3. The UK Health Security Agency’s (UKHSA) key objectives for this RFI are: a. understand the ability of the marketplace to fulfil its requirements; b. refine the scope of the requirements to best align to the marketplace; and c. inform the Authority’s chosen route to market to best enable competition 4. The key dates for this RFI are as follows: Publication date: 17 March 2026 Response deadline: 31 March 2026 5. Should you have any questions or queries relating to this RFI, please use the Atamis portal’s messaging centre to direct your questions to us for a response. 6. If a response is not received by the RFI response deadline this will have no impact on your ability to tender for the opportunity in the future. UKHSA will not enter into contracts on the basis of replies to this RFI. Scope of Requirements The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is responsible for protecting every member of every community from the impact of infectious diseases, chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear incidents and other health threats. We provide intellectual, scientific and operational leadership at national and local level, as well as on the global stage, to make the nation's health secure. UKHSA is exploring the feasibility of establishing a standby (offline) fulfilment service, which can be rapidly activated (“stood up”) when required to support surge or pandemic response activity to provide greater resilience and flexibility across use cases as part of UKHSAs Pandemic Preparedness strategy and support the UK’s contribution to the 100 Days Mission - GOV.UK, which targets deployment of diagnostics within 100 days of identifying a new pandemic threat. The envisaged service would primarily operate as a standby capability, remaining dormant during most business-as-usual operations and being activated by the Authority in defined circumstances, such as a pandemic declaration or surge response activation. Which are likely to attract high volume requirements of dispatches in the hundreds of thousands per day. However, the Authority may also require the Supplier to support low volume business-as-usual activity, such as deliveries to care homes or other organisational and private settings. When activated, the service would be required to scale rapidly and operate at pace, while maintaining full regulatory compliance, data integrity, security controls, and service quality. As part of the requirement, the Supplier would be expected to provide co-packing services to support different fulfilment channels and use cases. This may include, but is not limited to: • Breaking down outer cartons into individual test kits for direct-to-home distribution. • Assembling and packing multiple test kits into a single consignment for organisational settings such as care homes, NHS trusts, pharmacies, or other institutional recipients. • Application and inclusion of pre-printed or system-generated labels for PCR test kits. For PCR test kits, the Supplier would be required to support outbound delivery to the end user or organisational endpoint (e.g. homes, care settings or other designated locations). Once end users have taken their samples, they would return the PCR test kits directly to laboratories designated by UKHSA for testing, rather than sending them back to the Supplier’s warehouse or fulfilment centres. The Supplier would be responsible for providing and managing appropriate return packaging, labels, and tracking to ensure each sample can be monitored throughout its journey from the end user to the laboratory. Should you wish to respond to this Request for Information, please complete the response questionnaire which is found at the following link: https://atamis-1928.my.salesforce-sites.com/ProSpend__CS_ContractPage?SearchType=Projects&uid=a07Pz00001R3Sb7IAF&searchStr=&sortStr=Recently+Published&page=1&filters=&County=