Contract

Provision of Electronic Monitoring (EM) Services in Northern Ireland

  • Department of Justice

F03: Contract award notice

Notice identifier: 2022/S 000-033662

Procurement identifier (OCID): ocds-h6vhtk-0367a9

Published 28 November 2022, 3:04pm



Section one: Contracting authority

one.1) Name and addresses

Department of Justice

c/o Construction Procurement Delivery, Clare House, 303 Airport Road West

Belfast

BT3 9ED

Email

justice.cpd@finance-ni.gov.uk

Country

United Kingdom

Region code

UKN0 - Northern Ireland

Justification for not providing organisation identifier

Not on any register

Internet address(es)

Main address

https://www.justice-ni.gov.uk/

Buyer's address

https://www.finance-ni.gov.uk/topics/procurement

one.4) Type of the contracting authority

Body governed by public law

one.5) Main activity

General public services


Section two: Object

two.1) Scope of the procurement

two.1.1) Title

Provision of Electronic Monitoring (EM) Services in Northern Ireland

Reference number

DoJ DAC 16/22

two.1.2) Main CPV code

  • 79710000 - Security services

two.1.3) Type of contract

Services

two.1.4) Short description

The Department of Justice (DoJ) has awarded a short-term interim contract for the provision of services for Electronic Monitoring (EM) of offenders in Northern Ireland. The

Department has statutory obligations under Article 35 of Criminal Justice (Northern Ireland) Order 2008, which provides for EM as a condition of court bail, post-release licence or range of community supervision orders for adults and young persons. The scope of EM is a public protection tool for both the judiciary and for criminal justice agencies monitoring offenders in the community.

two.1.6) Information about lots

This contract is divided into lots: No

two.1.7) Total value of the procurement (excluding VAT)

Value excluding VAT: £2,400,000

two.2) Description

two.2.3) Place of performance

NUTS codes
  • UKN - Northern Ireland
Main site or place of performance

As required throughout Northern Ireland.

two.2.4) Description of the procurement

Electronic tagging and monitoring services of offenders in Northern Ireland.

two.2.5) Award criteria

Price

two.2.11) Information about options

Options: No


Section four. Procedure

four.1) Description

four.1.1) Type of procedure

Award of a contract without prior publication of a call for competition in the cases listed below

  • The procurement falls outside the scope of application of the regulations

Explanation:

DoJ awarded a contract in 2018, which was terminated prior to going live. To ensure service continuity, DoJ extended the existing contract while a new competitive process was initiated

in January 2020. Pre-market engagement responses were receipted early 2020 and about to be assessed when the COVID pandemic hit. The new process had to be put on hold immediately as DoJ and CPD resources were prioritised to COVID response activities. DoJ had to ensure delivery of business as usual for this critical service while working around constraints and working conditions imposed by the pandemic. The current contract was due to expire in October 2022.

Provision of this service is a statutory requirement under the Criminal Justice (NI) Order 2008 and there are serious legal and public protection ramifications if it is not in place. Lack of service would significantly impact on the ability to manage the risk of those on bail or those who have been released subject to licence conditions, who are often released on the basis of an EM curfew being in place. In Northern Ireland, there is the added risk and profile of tagging high risk terrorist subjects, with substantial legal scrutiny and press interest in this matter.

There are derogations under the Public Contracts Regulations to award a contract where the supplies or services can only be supplied by a particular supplier for the following reasons: -

a) Where competition is absent for technical reasons (regulation 32(2) (b) (ii)); but only, where no reasonable alternative or substitute exists and the absence of competition is not the result of an artificial narrowing down of the parameters of the procurement.

b) Regulation 32(5)(b) for additional deliveries by the original supplier which are intended either as a partial replacement of supplies or installations or as the extension of existing supplies or installations where a change of supplier would oblige the contracting authority to acquire supplies having different technical characteristics which would result in incompatibility or disproportionate technical difficulties in operation and maintenance.

The current service is very complex, high risk with serious legal ramifications if it fails e.g. adverse public protection outcomes, including in respect of terrorist related offenders; legal

challenges and associated financial penalties for the department; ECHR and deprivation of liberty related issues where EM is not available to manage release on bail or licence. There are high switching costs and high technical thresholds which require a significant period of testing to satisfy the Department and stakeholders that another provider could deliver the service to the required standard. This would include multiple field and breach

reporting tests, equipment/hardware tests, process testing and interoperability with existing DOJ/CJO systems.

Pre-market engagement was completed to aid the new procurement process which identified a lack of awareness/understanding of the NI Criminal Justice system, and

highlighted that a limited number of suppliers had any geographic footprint locally. This is a specialist and limited market.

As equipment and installations are a large proportion of the contract, retaining the incumbent is the only option. It will be VFM in that there is stable, quality service delivery that will ensure the Department can deliver its statutory obligations. There will be no

requirement to purchase new equipment until the new contract is in place. Any other provider would have to bring in new equipment/new technology etc all of which would need to be robustly tested over time.

This will be an interim contract to ensure continuity of services while a tender process (already initiated) occurs. The anticipated go live date is 1st April 2024. The tender opportunity and Contract Notice will be advertised in FTS in due course.

four.1.8) Information about the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)

The procurement is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement: Yes

four.2) Administrative information

four.2.1) Previous publication concerning this procedure

Notice number: 2022/S 000-025508


Section five. Award of contract

Contract No

DoJ DAC 16/22

Title

Provision of Electronic Monitoring (EM) Services in Northern Ireland

A contract/lot is awarded: Yes

five.2) Award of contract

five.2.1) Date of conclusion of the contract

23 September 2022

five.2.2) Information about tenders

Number of tenders received: 1

The contract has been awarded to a group of economic operators: No

five.2.3) Name and address of the contractor

Information withheld for security reasons

Information withheld for security reasons

Country

United Kingdom

NUTS code
  • UK - United Kingdom
Information withheld for security reasons

Information withheld for security reasons

The contractor is an SME

No

five.2.4) Information on value of contract/lot (excluding VAT)

Initial estimated total value of the contract/lot: £2,400,000

Total value of the contract/lot: £2,400,000


Section six. Complementary information

six.3) Additional information

Please note that information relating to contractors engaged by the Northern Ireland Department of Justice,and associated bodies, is not published in any publicly accessible forum or publication. This is to protect such contractors, whose security and safety could be threatened by dissident terrorist organisations still active in Northern Ireland if their details

became known. This is consistent with Regulation 50(6)(a).

The estimated contract value is a broad estimate only and includes additional quantum for unforeseen demand and to future proof. There is no guarantee of any level of business under

this contract. The estimate is not deemed to be a condition of contract nor a guarantee of minimum demand or uptake. No compensation will be payable to a contractor should the

actual demand be less than that stated.

The successful contractor's performance on this contract will be managed as per specification and regularly monitored. Contractors not delivering on contract requirements is a serious matter. It means the public purse is not getting what it is paying for. If a contractor fails to reach satisfactory levels of contract performance they will be given a specified time to improve. If, after the specified time, they still fail to reach satisfactory levels of contract performance, the matter will be escalated to senior management in Construction and Procurement Delivery for further action. If this occurs and their performance still does not

improve to satisfactory levels within the specified period, it may be regarded as an act of grave professional misconduct and they may be issued with a notice of written warning and notice of unsatisfactory performance and this contract may be terminated.The issue of a notice of written warning and notice of unsatisfactory performance will result in the Contractor being excluded from all procurement competitions being undertaken by Centres of Procurement Expertise on behalf of bodies covered by the Northern Ireland Procurement Policy for a period of up to 3 yearsfrom the date of issue of the notice.

six.4) Procedures for review

six.4.1) Review body

See VI.4.3 / Review procedure

See VI.4.3 / Review procedure

Country

United Kingdom

six.4.3) Review procedure

Precise information on deadline(s) for review procedures

The UK does not have any special review body with responsibility for appeal/mediation procedures in public procurement competitions. Instead, any challenges are dealt with by the High Court, Commercial Division, to which proceedings may be issued regarding alleged breaches of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015.