Public procurement notice: Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice
Published: 2018-05-25
Buyer: Scottish Public Pensions Agency
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Contract award without prior publication
CPV classification: 72000000 | 72200000 | 72250000: System and support services | 72253200: Computer systems support services | 72300000
Estimated value: 10000000 GBP

Technical requirements: Υπηρεσίες τεχνολογίας των πληροφοριών: παροχή συμβουλών, ανάπτυξη λογισμικού, Διαδίκτυο και υποστήριξη
The Scottish Public Pensions Agency (SPPA) is an Agency of the Scottish Government. Its' principal role is to administer the pensions, premature retirement and injury benefit schemes for employees of the National Health Service in Scotland (NHSSS) and for members of the Scottish Teachers' Superannuation Scheme (STSS). This existing service was extended in April 2015 to include the 2 firefighters pension schemes and 2 police pension schemes in Scotland.
The original contract, competitively procured to contract notice 2006/S 077-081151 to purchase a pensions administration solution which:
ii— has sufficient flexibility to accommodate both new pension schemes and additional business from other public sector pension schemes,
iii— accurately record all aspects of operational activities, providing financial and management information to support the SPPA’s business needs,
v— enables electronic data interfaces for Government Agencies, Scottish Government corporate systems, employers and pension scheme members.
In addition to the above requirements, the SPPA is seeking to include an exercise of scanning all NHSS and STSS case files into the current EDM system in order that all case files are accessible via electronic means.
The Scottish Public Pensions Agency (SPPA) currently administers the Scottish NHS, teachers, police and fire pension schemes in Scotland. SPPA initiated the OJEU phase of its procurement project for a replacement system with the publication of a Prior Information Notice (PIN) on 17.3.2014. A contract due to run until [2025] was awarded in October 2015 but was ended early in 2018. SPPA has in place an existing contract with Heywood Ltd for the supply of a pension administration system, the contract for which is due to expire in March 2020 and which had been in place so as to cover the period in which the replacement system was being built.
The SPPA is not able to complete a re-procurement process, for a complex, business critical software solution by March 2020 and the continuity of the pension administration service is an urgent and overriding priority to ensure integrity of a system serving approximately 180 000 pensioners. Urgent contract extension, pursuant to Regulation 33(c) of the public contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015 with Heywood Ltd is therefore essential to ensure that there is no disruption to the service provided by the SPPA to pensioners, scheme members and employers. As part of the extension SPPA will need to consider some essential upgrade work.
The contract with Heywood Ltd will be extended for a maximum 48 months additional period. This is essential for SPPA to complete a comprehensive and robust tender exercise. SPPA expect to start the tender exercise in 2019.


Winner: Aquila Heywood
Award value: 10000000