Public procurement notice: Prior Information Notice With Call For Competition
Published: 2018-06-16
Buyer: Ministry of Justice.
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Competitive procedure with negotiation
CPV classification: 75230000 | 75231200 | 75231210 | 75231220 | 75240000
Estimated value: 1550000000 GBP
Submission deadline: 2018-07-19
Award criteria: The most economic tender

Technical requirements: PECS provides a critical function to a range of Criminal Justice System (CJS) stakeholders including the Police, Courts, Prisons and Youth Custody Services. PECS contractors will be responsible for the movement of adult males and females from prisons and police stations to courts as well as inter-prison transfers, the movement of children and young people from Young Offender Institutions (YOIs), Secure Training Centers (STCs) and Secure Children's Homes (SCHs) as well as care and security whilst in the court custody area and in the dock and transfers from courts to prisons and other nominated locations at the conclusion of court business.
The contract will be split into 2 lots, Lot N: North East, North West, Midlands and Yorkshire and Humberside and Wales, Lot S: East of England, London, South East and South West.
PECS4 contractors will continue to physically transport prisoners between locations but increasingly the requirement will be to enable and support changes to the core operating model for courts, prisons and the police resulting from the implementation of MoJ reform programmes, including an increased proportion of business being delivered in a virtual environment with greater emphasis on the use of video technology.
PECS contractors will be responsible for the movement of adult males and females from prisons and police stations to courts as well as, inter-prison transfers, the movement of children and young people from Young Offender Institutions (YOIs), Secure Training Centres (STCs) and Secure Children's Homes (SCHs) as well as care and security whilst in the court custody area and in the dock, and transfers from courts to prisons and other nominated locations at the conclusion of court business.
Each service component (adult and children and young people) will be separately specified, funded and managed.
The anticipated quantity or scope is an estimate of the potential value of the contracts and does not in any way guarantee any level of expenditure. The estimated cost range is real in 2018, does not account for inflation and includes any possible future changes to the requirement for services as listed in additional information of this PIN. All values should be considered as indicative only.
PECS4 contractors will continue to physically transport prisoners between locations but increasingly the requirement will be to enable and support changes to the core operating model for courts, prisons and the police resulting from the implementation of MoJ reform programmes, including an increased proportion of business being delivered in a virtual environment with greater emphasis on the use of video technology.
PECS contractors will be responsible for the movement of adult males and females from prisons and police stations to courts as well as, inter-prison transfers, the movement of children and young people from Young Offender Institutions (YOIs), Secure Training Centres (STCs) and Secure Children's Homes (SCHs) as well as care and security whilst in the court custody area and in the dock, and transfers from courts to prisons and other nominated locations at the conclusion of court business.
Each service component (adult and children and young people) will be separately specified, funded and managed.
The anticipated quantity or scope is an estimate of the potential value of the contracts and does not in any way guarantee any level of expenditure. The estimated cost range is real in 2018, does not account for inflation and includes any possible future changes to the requirement for services as listed in additional information of this PIN. All values should be considered as indicative only.
The services being awarded are listed within Schedule 3 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (PCR) and so pursuant to regulation 74 will be subject to the light regime under which the Authority is not obliged to comply with the full requirements of the PCR. The Authority will conduct a process similar to the competitive procedure with negotiation and will comply with its obligations of equal treatment, transparency, non-discrimination and proportionality at all times during the procurement.
Maximum of 5 bidders for each lot will be invited to participate in the negotiation phase of the procurement process following assessment of initial bids. Details of the objective criteria for selecting shortlisted bidders will be set out in the procurement documents. Where the top 5 ranked bidders cannot be identified due to 2 or more bidders being ranked in 5
Economic and Financial assessment will form part of the Selection Questionnaire on a Pass / Fail basis. The Authority will be requesting updates to the information throughout the negotiation phase and should the criteria set out in the 6.1.4.2 of the SQ Information and Background, not be met, the Authority will exclude Potential Providers from the process. Further details of the Authority’s approach are set out in the Selection Questionnaire.
The award criteria will be based on the most economically advantageous tender. Potential providers will be able to bid for both lots but will only be allowed to win 1 of the lots, unless there is only one bidder across both lots, in which case both lots could be awarded to 1 bidder. Potential providers will be required to state within their response to the Selection Questionnaire (SQ) the lots they want to bid for. If potential providers bid for both lots, they must be prepared to be awarded a contract for either lot, and must not state a preference. Variant bids will not be permitted.
The Authority will be performing events through its e-Sourcing Portal known as Bravo. The e-Sourcing Portal is an online application that allows all potential suppliers to create and submit their responses to any SQ and tenders via the internet.


Award value: 1550000000