A&P Falmouth challenges “prejudiced” loss of RRS Sir David Attenborough refit tender

APCL A&P Falmouth is challenging the award of a refit and maintenance contract for the UK-flagged RRS Sir David Attenborough to Denmark’s Orskov Yard, arguing that the tender process was unfair and wrongly excluded UK shiprepair capability.
In an open letter, A&P Falmouth said the contract was awarded to Orskov in February 2025 after UK Research and Innovation stated that UK yards lacked the technical capability to undertake the work. A&P rejected that claim, saying it had built the vessel and retained suitable drydock capacity across its sites.
A&P said it submitted a formal bid after a new invitation to tender was issued in December 2025, but was informed in April that it had been unsuccessful. The company said it had since been told its bid had been highly competitive on both technical scoring and price.
A&P said: “We believe that this tender process has been prejudiced against us.”
The company said it was now challenging the outcome on the grounds that the award conflicted with UK public procurement policy and failed to account for domestic economic value. It argued that awarding the work overseas would deny Cornwall and the wider UK maritime supply chain the economic benefit of the contract, while weakening support for skilled jobs and apprenticeships in Falmouth. It also questioned the use of UK public funds to send the vessel abroad for shiprepair work.