Decision details

Through its Registration Service, the Council provides a suite of bereavement related services for the residents of the borough and for the coroners services, the wider Black Country area.

Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council is the relevant authority for the Black Country Coroners jurisdiction, and it is therefore incumbent on Sandwell to provide the necessary resources to enable the coroner to discharge their judicial responsibilities.

A death will be referred to the coroner if it is:
(a)the deceased died a violent or unnatural death,
(b)the cause of death is unknown, or
(c) the deceased died while in custody or otherwise in state detention.

In order for the coroner to ascertain the cause of death, it is often necessary to use toxicology services. Specimen samples are sent for toxicology testing are usually collected by a coroner’s pathologist or on their behalf by a mortuary technician during a post-mortem examination. Analysis of a variety of fluids and tissue samples will be undertaken to determine the absence or presence of drugs and poisons.

Tender submissions were invited with four compliant bids evaluated using the published award criteria which were based on 70% price and 30% quality/social value.

Analytical Services International Limited submitted the lowest compliant tender price total and were therefore awarded the maximum score of 70% for this criterion. They were equal second highest scoring tenderer on the quality/social value criterion with a score of 23.33%.

Therefore, following the analysis of returned Tenders and in accordance with the published criteria, it is recommended Analytical Services International Limited be awarded the contract.

That, the Director of Law and Governance, Monitoring Officer in consultation with Finance - Section 151 Officer award a contract for the provision of toxicology services to Analytical Services International Limited, Aspect House, Grove Business Park, Wantage, Oxfordshire, OX12 9FA. The period of the award will be four years commencing on 1 February 2024.

In accordance with the Council’s Contract Procedures Rules, a tendering exercise has been undertaken to establish a four-year contract from 1 February 2024 to 31 January 2028 for the provision of toxicology services to the Black Country Coroner.

The service requirements for this tendering process included where necessary the collection, testing, analysis, interpretation of results and reporting to the Senior Coroner and Coroner’s Pathologist within contracted timescales.

These services are often necessary when a death occurs in the Black Country and the cause of death is unknown, unnatural or the deceased was in a state of detention, e.g. police custody, at the time of their death.

Tenders were invited using public advertisement to cover the requirements as outlined in 1.1 above and a total of four compliant bids were returned by the tender closing date.

Following analysis of returned tenders, it is recommended that Analytical Services International Limited, Aspect House, Grove Business Park, Wantage, Oxfordshire, OX12 9FA be awarded the contract.

Whist anticipated expenditure is dependent on the volume of deaths referred to the coroner and the type of toxicology test required, over the four-year contract period it is estimated in the region of £408,000 will be expended.