Current contractual obligations with Warmworks: EIR release

Information requested

The current contractual obligations with Scottish Government and Warmworks, Under the Warmer Homes Scotland initiative including the:

• Term of the contract
• Value of Contract
• Details of the procurement procedure to award the contract
• What due diligence was done on the appointment of the partners involved

From The period April 2023 - April 2024:

• How many referrals from Home Energy Scotland were passed to Warmworks
• How many of these referrals were passed to Everwarm from Warmworks
• What was the value of the measures installed by Everwarm services (UNDER THE WARMER HOMES SCOTLAND INITITIVE). 

Response

As the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’ for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

Response to your request

• Term of the contract

The Contract Commencement Date was 02 October 2023. The Initial Term of the Managing Agent for the Heat in Buildings Scotland National Scheme Contract is 5 years, with the option to extend by up to a maximum of a further 2 years. The maximum term of the Contract shall be no longer than 7 years from the Commencement Date.

• Value of Contract

Based on the maximum term of the Contract being 7 years from the Commencement Date, the Contract is estimated to have a maximum possible total value of £728 million (exclusive of VAT) if the option to scale-up the contract is fully utilised.

• Details of the procurement procedure to award the contract

In compliance with the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015, the type of procurement procedure used to award the contract was the Open Procedure.

Details of the procedure are available at the published Contract Notice - available at: https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/search/show/search_view.aspx?ID=JUL454814.

Details of the award are available at the published Contract Award Notice - available at: https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/search/show/search_view.aspx?ID=JUN481760.

The contract was awarded to Warmworks Scotland LLP – who are a Limited Liability Partnership comprising three Designated members: Changeworks Resources for Life, Everwarm Limited and Energy Saving Trust Enterprises Limited.

In line with the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015, the procurement exercise used the mandated Single Procurement Document (SPD). The SPD is a standard questionnaire that allows buyers to identify suitably qualified and experienced bidders, and requires the bidder (in this case Warmworks Scotland LLP) to identify themselves, their Designated members and any proposed subcontractors (it should be noted that the delivery model which a bidder proposes to adopt to deliver the requirement is at their discretion, and that sub-contracting is not mandated).

The SPD also contains Exclusion Criteria questions and Selection Criteria questions which allow bidders to indicate whether their organisations meet the requirements of the procurement exercise.

SPD Mandatory Exclusion Criteria:
The bidder must be excluded from the procurement process if specified offences have been committed and they have not taken sufficient self-cleansing actions – these include:

• Criminal Offences in relation to corruption, bribery, money laundering or certain types of fraud;
• Blacklisting;
• Tax and Social Security breaches by binding decision (judicial or administrative).

SPD Discretionary Exclusion Criteria:
The bidder may be excluded from the procurement process if they have taken part in certain activities and they have not taken sufficient self-cleansing actions - examples include:

• Environmental, Social and Employment Law;
• Grave Professional Misconduct;
• Conflict of Interest.

The SPD Selection Criteria setting out the requirements for this specific procurement exercise were detailed in the published Contract Notice: (https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/search/show/search_view.aspx?ID=JUL454814) and required bidders to:

• Have a minimum “general” yearly turnover of £10,000,000 for the last two years.
• Demonstrate a Current Ratio of no less than 1.0 in each of the last two financial years.
• Confirm that they held, or could commit to obtain: Professional Risk Indemnity (minimum £5,000,000), Employer's (Compulsory) Liability Insurance (minimum £10,000,000), Public Liability Insurance (minimum £30,000,000), and Product Liability Insurance (minimum £10,000,000).
• Provide relevant examples of services carried out during the previous three years.
• Provide a statement of the relevant supply chain management and/or tracking systems used.
• Provide a completed Bidder ‘priority contract’ Climate Change Plan Template.
• Confirm whether they intended to sub-contract and, if so, for what proportion of the contract.
• Confirm that they held an accredited independent third party certificate of compliance in accordance with ISO 9001 (or equivalent).
• Confirm that they also held an accredited independent third party certificate of compliance in accordance with ISO 45001 (or equivalent) or had, within the last 12 months, successfully met the assessment requirements of a construction-related scheme in registered membership of the Safety Schemes in Procurement (SSIP) forum.
• Confirm that they held an accredited independent third party certificate of compliance with ISO 14001 (or equivalent) or a valid EMAS (or equivalent) certificate.
•  
• What due diligence was done on the appointment of the partners involved

In line with internal due diligence pre-contract award procedures, the accounts for Warmworks Scotland LLP were reviewed by the Scottish Government Accountancy Services Unit (ASU) – who recommended that a Parent Company Guarantee with each of the companies in the Limited Liability Partnership be put in place. Following contract award, and in line with the requirements detailed in the Invitation to Tender, both a fully executed Parent Company Guarantee (signed by all three partners) and a £10,000,000 Performance Bond were delivered to the Scottish Government. Following contract award, and in line with the requirements detailed in the Invitation to Tender, Warmworks were also required to:

a) Advertise any sub-contracting opportunities through the Public Contracts Scotland procurement portal (www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk)
b) Follow a procedure (designed at their own discretion) which ensured reasonable competition and followed principles of equal treatment, non-discrimination and Transparency - ensuring that such procedure was accessible by small and medium enterprises;
c) Provide the Scottish Government with a completed Sub-contractor Information Document for each proposed sub-contractor in advance of the contract Commencement Date.

• How many referrals from Home Energy Scotland were passed to Warmworks

The total number of referrals received by Warmworks from Home Energy Scotland between 01 April 2023 and 31 March 2024 is 11,058. Please note this figure will contain referrals from both phases of Warmer Homes Scotland.

• How many of these referrals were passed to Everwarm from Warmworks

Not all referrals result in work, as some are cancelled before reaching installation stage. Once at installation stage, whole referrals are not passed to sub-contractors as work is allocated per measure. Multiple measures can be assigned to a sub-contractor per property and multiple sub-contractors can work on one property.

In the period 01 April 2023 – 31 March 2024, 9,539 were installed under Warmer Homes Scotland and Everwarm installed 3,747 of those measures.
Please note these figures only include heating and energy efficiency measures and not ancillary measures, and cover both phases of Warmer Homes Scotland.

• What was the value of the measures installed by Everwarm services (UNDER THE WARMER HOMES SCOTLAND INITITIVE)

Under the terms of the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held), the Scottish Government is not required to provide information which it does not have. The Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested because it is not information that is required as part of the contract between the Scottish Government and Warmworks Scotland LLP to deliver Warmer Homes Scotland. Warmworks may have the information you are asking for, however they do not hold this on behalf of the Scottish Government.

This exception is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception. While we recognise that there may be some public interest in information about sub-contractor payments on Warmer Homes Scotland, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.