Scope
Description
Provision of HOLMES 2 application to set up a Major Incident Room ("MIR") functionality within the ModNet (Secret) Cloud.
Within Defence, the Service Justice System is required to operate in accordance with the Armed Forces Act 2006 and the Laws of England and Wales. This includes operating to College of Policing guidelines: Major Incident Room Standardised Administrative Procedures 2021 (MIRSAP 2021) and the Major Crime Investigation Manual 2021 (MCIM 2021), which lay out how serious and complex crime must be investigated. Unisys HOLMES 2 is the only system accredited by the NPCC (National Police Chiefs Council) for the purpose of setting up MIRs. The MIR is the repository for all material gathered from the public, enquiry officers and other sources. It is managed using standardised administrative procedures and supports the Senior Investigating Officer to direct and control the investigation. As such, the Service Justice System is held up against the same levels of scrutiny as other Home Office Police Forces and hence the required application must enable the Service Prosecuting Authority and Military Court Service to obtain the same performance data as the Crown Prosecution Service and His Majesty's Courts and Tribunal Service in order to be compliant with Home Office and College of Policing Standards.
The Defence Serious Crime Command (DSCC) is establishing a MIR which requires a system for gathering and processing evidence which is SUKEO (Secret UK Eyes Only). The HOLMES 2 application has been developed by Unisys (built on the Unisys Law Enforcement Application Framework (U-LEAF) and is a bespoke application designed to meet the complex requirements of MIR Standard Administrative Procedures ("MIRSAP 2021") in line with the unique technical requirements for investigating serious, complex crimes/incidents.
Contract 1
Supplier
Contract value
- £491,269 excluding VAT
- £589,523 including VAT
Above the relevant threshold
Earliest date the contract will be signed
21 October 2025
Contract dates (estimated)
- 28 November 2025 to 28 November 2028
- Possible extension to 28 November 2029
- 4 years, 1 day
Description of possible extension:
1 Year Optional Extension to Nov 2029
Main procurement category
Services
Options
The right to additional purchases while the contract is valid.
1 Year Optional Extension to Nov 2029
CPV classifications
- 72512000 - Document management services
Other information
Conflicts assessment prepared/revised
Yes
Procedure
Procedure type
Direct award
Direct award justification
Single supplier - technical reasons
The contract award is based on:
Procurement Act 2023 Regulation 41 Sch.5 Para. 6:
A) due to an absence of competition for technical reasons, only a particular supplier can supply the goods, services or works required, and
B)there are no reasonable alternatives to those goods, services or works.
The HOLMES 2 application is the only accredited UK national application for investigating complex crime and is accredited by the Home Office.
Unique technical features of HOLMES 2 include but are not limited to:
- Searching: Comes with a comprehensive search facility that allows the user to query structured and unstructured data captured during an investigation.
- Incident Linking: Ability to run searches across linked incidents.
- Exhibit/Property Management: Enables recording of property found or seized during an investigation and preparation and production of forensic submission forms and receipts.
- Disaster Victim Identification compliant with Interpol standards.
- Associations: Maintains relevant links between all records, documents and tasks created or captured as a part of an investigation incident. The user can also define if these associations/links are provisional, time-bound, or high importance/relevance to the entity. The user also has the capability to highlight certain associations and include these in the entity profile.
- Tag Management: Tagging provides a facility to link a group of entities and documents to multiple common lines of enquiry or themes. It also facilitates flexible classification and grouping of related records through user configurable themes.
- Disclosure & Case Preparation: Disclosure of unused prosecution material is supported, and documents can be redacted for Court purposes. Preparation of multiple case files for Disclosure, court files and use of different templates as may be required by the different geographical regions are supported.
- Covert Operations. Provides ability to run a covert investigation within the system.
- Digital Evidence Vault and Management Store through the Holmes 2 DAMS (Digital Asset Management System) - captures and aggregates all types of imagery - stills, video, audio, multimedia and disk images whilst maintaining the integrity of stored materials. Stores content from multiple channels (forensic imagery, ad-hoc imagery, Taser-cam / wearable video, CCTV/IP camera, in-car video, interview/observation rooms, and public imagery) to a single back-end secure IT system.
- Ensures chain of custody of evidence through preservation of original assets with an audit trail
Supplier
Unisys
- Companies House: 00103709
ENIGMA, Wavendon Business Park
Milton Keynes
MK17 8LX
United Kingdom
Telephone: 01895 237137
Email: sunita.raman@gb.unisys.com
Region: UKJ12 - Milton Keynes
Small or medium-sized enterprise (SME): No
Voluntary, community or social enterprise (VCSE): No
Contract 1
Contracting authority
Ministry of Defence
- Public Procurement Organisation Number: PHVX-4316-ZVGZ
Kentigern House, 65 Brown Street
Glasgow
G2 8EX
United Kingdom
Email: sanjay.kottegoda100@mod.gov.uk
Website: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-defence
Region: UKM82 - Glasgow City
Organisation type: Public authority - central government