8  Appointment

8.1  The Service Provider shall procure that the Preferred Tenderer(s) (as agreed or determined in accordance with paragraph 7) (Preferred Tenderers) are appointed to provide the relevant Market Tested Service or group of Market Tested Services or individual parts of any Market Tested Service (as the case may be) on the basis set out in their Compliant Tender.

8.2  Without prejudice to paragraph 5.7 (Selection of Tenderers), where the Service Provider believes that only one Compliant Tender is likely to be submitted, or where only one Compliant Tender is in fact submitted, the Service Provider shall not be entitled to proceed further with the Market Testing or (as the case may be) to appoint a Preferred Tenderer without the prior written approval of the Authority.6  

8.3  The Service Provider shall (after consultation with the Authority) provide any Tenderer which is unsuccessful in being selected as a Preferred Tenderer with an appropriate explanation of the reasons behind its non-selection, if so requested by the party in question.

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6 If only one Compliant Tender is submitted in respect of some or all of the Market Tested Services, the Authority is at risk of being obliged to pay an uncompetitive price for that part of the Services.  Accordingly, the Model Contract provides a right for the Authority to prevent the Service Provider appointing a single bidder and passing those costs onto the Authority through the Services Payment without its approval.  The risks of this occurring in practice to be remote and capable of assessment by the Service Provider (unless there are project specific reasons to the contrary) which should enable the Service Provider to accept the inclusion of a provision of this nature.  If the parties wish to specify what would happen in those circumstances, the 4P's should be consulted.