Scope
Reference
Project_2691
Description
This Tender Notice outlines the Home Offices intent to competitively assess, select and award a contract to deliver this requirement.
The Accelerated Capability Environment (ACE) solves public safety and security challenges by bringing together the best of public and private sector capabilities, especially new digital and data technologies.
The Private Sector Partner requirement is for a supplier to work closely with the Authority, to act as a flexible commissioning and delivery partner with responsibility for the dynamic ecosystem and collaboration platform (physical and virtual), to deliver commissioned ACE customer requirements (challenges or problem statements) and jointly protect HMG interests.
It should be noted that the ACE capability operates across HMG and Authorities other than the Home Office may access this agreement providing there is a memorandum of understanding in place for ACE services between the Home Office and the respective HMG organisation.
Commissions may or may not be limited to public safety and security challenges. It is anticipated that the majority of services will be delivered within the United Kingdom however the Authority may require the private sector delivery partner to support international delivery if required.
Market engagement has taken place for this opportunity with engagement calls on the 18th December 2024 and 30th January 2025. A face to face session was held at the Home Office on the 4th March 2025.
Notices (025731-2024 & 035036-2024) were issued as part of transitional arrangements from PCR2015 to PA23.
The engagements provided opportunities for interested parties to understand more on ACE and the private sector partner service as well as the procurement process.
The service is required to integrate the following key functions of leadership, mission engagement, portfolio delivery and innovation and enablers. The interaction between these and the ACE team within the Home Office make this suitable to be delivered in one lot as an integrated solution. This will provide greater taxpayer value for money through efficiency and consistency in approach.
The duration of the initial contract term will be up to 36 months from the date of contract signature, with an option for up to two 12-month extensions making a total potential term of 60 months.
Total value (estimated)
- £16,500,000 excluding VAT
- £19,800,000 including VAT
Above the relevant threshold
Contract dates (estimated)
- 31 October 2025 to 30 October 2028
- Possible extension to 30 October 2030
- 5 years
Description of possible extension:
Two optional extensions of up to 12 months each can be enacted at the Authority's discretion.
Options
The right to additional purchases while the contract is valid.
• Provision of dedicated, longer-term Artificial Intelligence (AI) related technology and data science services, potentially through contract-compliant but separate governance processes, that could constitute some, or even all, of the functions of an "AI Lab" environment for specific customer sets.
• Run environments providing access across one or more HMG departments or agencies or to the private sector to data or software libraries (e.g. GitHub-style market-places), potentially charging for use.
• Develop and agree joint services with other innovation and technology units and partners across HM government, for example (including but not limited to) NSSIF, DASA and others.
• Support to the Authority in the commercialisation of innovations developed through ACE, under previous and new contracts.
• Support to the Authority in the development and professionalisation of innovation skills and capabilities across the Authority.
The above contract modifications are not currently included in the tender but are current discussions the Authority is having to determine the role that the PSP will play in these circumstances.
Main procurement category
Services
CPV classifications
- 45111290 - Primary works for services
- 72000000 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support
Contract locations
- UK - United Kingdom
Participation
Legal and financial capacity conditions of participation
Legal and financial capacity conditions will be assessed as part of this procurement through the Procurement Specific Questionnaire (PSQ) within the participation stage of the procurement.
The PSQ is used to collect the information required for the Conditions of Participation Stage of the Private Sector partner for the Accelerated Capability Environment (ACE) procurement. Guidance on the procurement process can be found Guidance for Bidders within the procurement suite of documentation on the Jaggaer e-sourcing portal.
The Conditions of Participation Stage is a pass / fail stage of the procurement process, and suppliers must achieve a pass mark on all mandatory pass questions. If a Bidder does not pass all questions that are mandatory to pass, that Bidder shall be disqualified from the competition and will not progress to the next stage.
Technical ability conditions of participation
This procurement includes an assessment of technical capability to deliver the services for the contract - these will be assessed at both the participation and invitation to tender stages of the competition.
At the participation stage, the technical capability questions will include questions on previous experience and capability in utilising external providers for innovation capability, collaborating with stakeholders, managing delivery with multiple organisations for innovation and implementation of such programmes. The actual question set can be found in the PSQ document of the procurement documentation suite at the Authority e-sourcing portal (jaggaer).
Particular suitability
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME)
Submission
Enquiry deadline
16 May 2025, 12:00pm
Submission type
Requests to participate
Deadline for requests to participate
30 May 2025, 5:00pm
Submission address and any special instructions
via e-sourcing portal at:
Tenders may be submitted electronically
Yes
Languages that may be used for submission
English
Suppliers to be invited to tender
3 to 6 suppliers
Selection criteria:
Bidders must successfully pass the procurement specific questionnaire (PSQ) question suite and be ranked in the top 6 following evaluation of the service specific technical questions.
Award decision date (estimated)
1 October 2025
Recurring procurement
Publication date of next tender notice (estimated): 1 February 2030
Award criteria
| Name | Description | Type | Weighting |
|---|---|---|---|
| Technical (Quality) Capability | Bidders will be required to complete seven weighted technical capability questions related to (for example) Portfolio delivery, Leadership, Mision engagement, enablers and mobilisation. Questions will... |
Quality | 60% |
| Pricing | A pricing template will be required for completion fot bidders at the ITT stages. This will utilise the price/quality ratio and bidders will be required to input their propose doperating costs for ACE... |
Price | 30% |
| Social Value | Bidders will be required to complete technical capability questions related to the social value policy theme of 'Kick start economic growth'. There will be 2 weighted questions with specific social... |
Quality | 10% |
Other information
Conflicts assessment prepared/revised
Yes
Procedure
Procedure type
Competitive flexible procedure
Competitive flexible procedure description
This tender notice is for the award of a public contract through a competitive flexible procedure in accordance with section 20(1) and (2)(b) of the Procurement Act 2023.
The procurement will follow the competitive flexible procedure. The summary of stages are as follows:
1. Non-disclosure agreement
2. Conditions of Participation - procurement specific Questionnaire
3. Evaluation, moderation and down-select
4. Invitation to Tender (ITT), Negotiation and Best & Final Offer (BAFO) stage
5. Final evaluation, moderation and Authority Governance
6. Contract Award
Firstly, bidders seeking to participate in the opportunity will be required to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) in order to access the procurement opportunity. Upon satisfactory completion of the NDA, the next stage will be Conditions of Participation where bidders will be required to complete answers to set questions in the Procurement Specific Questionnaire (PSQ).
The responses from bidders to the PSQ will be evaluated and moderated and ranked by the Authority in accordance with the issued evaluation methodology. The highest ranked bidders will be down-selected and invited to take part in the next stage of the procurement. Those bidders not down-selected will not participate in any further stages. The Authority aims to take sufficient bidders through to maintain competition but also ensures capable bidders move to the next stages - this is anticipated to be from a minimum of 3 bidders with a maximum of 6 bidders but the Authority may include more or less based upon bids received.
Bidders invited to move forward after the PSQ will participate in the Invitation to Tender (ITT) stage which includes ITT, negotiation and best and final offer (BAFO) elements. The ITT stage will require bidders to provide further responses related to the services and provide a commercial bid for the services. These bids will be evaluated and moderated with the negotiation stage providing a one-to-one opportunity for both bidders and the Authority to clarify proposed solutions. Bidders should note that the Authority may amend the assessment for prior to the ITT stage as an update to its tender documentation which is being issued alongside the PSQ documentation. If such updates do occur this may be to refine the award criteria weighting of the ITT stage.
The bidders will then move to a BAFO stage which shall be evaluated, moderated and ranked with a compliant preferred bidder being identified. Subject to governance approval and subject to contract within the Authority, the preferred bidder shall be awarded the contract.
This procurement will be managed electronically via the Home Office's eSourcing Portal (JAGGAER). To participate in this procurement, participants must first be registered on the eSourcing Portal. Home Office eSourcing Portal. The Home Office reserves the right to cancel the competition at any stage with no liability for tenderer costs and expenses.
You may express your interest to participate in this requirement by emailing John.Hampshire@homeoffice.gov.uk. Your email must clearly state: the name and reference for the procurement you wish to register for, the name of the registered organisation and the name and contact details for the registered individual sending the email.
Your email must clearly state: the name and reference for the procurement you wish to register for; the name of the registered supplier; and the name and contact details for the registered individual sending the email. The eMail will be processed and then the buyer will enable the supplier to access the procurement online via the eSourcing Portal. The registered user will receive a notification email to alert them once this has been done.
PSQ submissions must be made by: 17:00 Local time 30 May 2025.
Documents
Documents to be provided after the tender notice
The Authority:
- may refine the Invitation to Tender (ITT) stage guidance for bidders;
- may provide additional documents in the data room for bidders if required;
- may update documentation as needed in accordance with the PA23
Any updates will be made within the Authority e-sourcing portal (jaggaer).
Contracting authority
Home Office is the lead Authority for this contract. Other HMG departments and agencies may use this servcie viua entering an MoU with the Home Office.
- Public Procurement Organisation Number: PWGC-6513-PQLZ
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF
United Kingdom
Region: UKI32 - Westminster
Organisation type: Public authority - central government