Public procurement notice: Prior Information Notice Without Call For Competition
Published: 2018-03-02
Buyer: Ministry of Justice.
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
CPV classification: 75230000 | 75231200 | 75231210 | 75231220 | 75240000
Estimated value: 1800000000 GBP

Technical requirements: It is the intention of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) as the Contracting Authority to put in place a 4th generation of the Prison Escort & Custody Services contract(s) (PECS4). PECS represents a critical service that joins up functions across a wide and diverse group of criminal justice stakeholders including the courts, the police, the Youth Custody Service (YCS) and prisons.
The current contractors are GeoAmey and Serco. The MoJ wishes to engage with the market in order to explore options for contracting with suppliers to deliver PECS4. The MoJ is encouraging expressions of interest from a wide variety of suppliers, including Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) expressing an interest in being part of the supply chain.
The service involves the provision of vehicles and escorts for the safe and secure movement of prisoners between police stations, courts and prisons, and the supervision of prisoners whilst in custody in court buildings, awaiting, during and following court hearings. The service will include a requirement to work with the MoJ in support of its reform programmes involving changes to the prison and court estates, and including an expected increase in the use of virtual hearings using video technology, all of which will have an impact on the locations and the volume of movements and distance travelled during the life of the contract. The MoJ will be seeking to explore how the service might be improved through the greater use of technology, fuel and logistics efficiencies, and is keen to discuss commercial arrangements for the optimisation of value for money and risk transfer in delivering an effective service.
PECS4 will include services for escorting children and young people as well as adults male and female prisoners. The services for children and young people is a distinct service from the adult and youth escorts with different service requirements such as; non-cellular vehicles, training and certification requirements for staff, higher staff to young person ratios, and as such, there will be a separate specification for:
— children and young people (at Secure Children’s Homes (STC), Secure Training Centres (STC) and Young Offender Institutions (YOI)).
The service involves the provision of vehicles and escorts for the safe and secure movement of prisoners between police stations, courts and prisons, and the supervision of prisoners whilst in custody in court buildings, awaiting, during and following court hearings. The service will include a requirement to work with the MoJ in support of its reform programmes involving changes to the prison and court estates, and including an expected increase in the use of virtual hearings using video technology, all of which will have an impact on the locations and the volume of movements and distance travelled during the life of the contract. The MoJ will be seeking to explore how the service might be improved through the greater use of technology, fuel and logistics efficiencies, and is keen to discuss commercial arrangements for the optimisation of value for money and risk transfer in delivering an effective service.
PECS4 will include services for escorting children and young people as well as adults male and female prisoners. The services for children and young people is a distinct service from the adult and youth escorts with different service requirements such as; non-cellular vehicles, training and certification requirements for staff, higher staff to young person ratios, and as such, there will be a separate specification for:
— children and young people (at Secure Children’s Homes (STC), Secure Training Centres (STC) and Young Offender Institutions (YOI)).
(i) Inform the market of a prospective contract opportunity in connection with the procurement for the supply of PECS4; and
(ii) request information that may be relevant to the procurement strategy that may be adopted by the MoJ.
The Authority plans to hold a Market Engagement Day on 22.3.2018. Suppliers interested in attending the event should confirm their interest by 5:00 pm on 19.3.2018 by sending an email to the PECS4 commercial team at PECS_4_Competition@justice.gov.uk
The form of response should be limited to the provision of a single point of contact (full company name, contact name, job title, e-mail address and telephone number). The Authority will then issue invitations to all interested parties, confirming the timings and location of the events. Details of interested parties shall be added to the Authority’s e-sourcing portal, in order to share information.
The Authority is considering options on alternative lot structures and will wish to discuss this during market engagement.
The total estimated value of the contracts being tendered is 1 200 000 000 GBP — 1 800 000 000 GBP over 10 years.


Award value: 1800000000