Public procurement notice: Contract Award Notice
Published: 2017-11-21
Buyer: The Secretary of State for Justice
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Negotiated without a prior call for competition
CPV classification: 72000000 | 72100000 | 72200000 | 72300000 | 72400000
Estimated value: 45000000 GBP
Award criteria: Lowest price

Technical requirements: Υπηρεσίες τεχνολογίας των πληροφοριών: παροχή συμβουλών, ανάπτυξη λογισμικού, Διαδίκτυο και υποστήριξη
ICT services to support the management of court services in England and Wales, prior to the transition of those ICT services to the Ministry of Justice's common ICT infrastructure.
Given that the scope of the services will be reducing over the term of the contract, the contract value is estimated to be 45 000 000 GBP.
The contracting authority relies on the ground set out within Regulation 32(2)(b)(ii) (Use of negotiated procedure without prior publication) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. For technical reasons, the services can be provided only by a particular economic operator. This is the incumbent supplier (Atos IT Services UK Limited) who has been providing the services that form the subject matter of this contract under a contract with the contracting authority for the last 11 years. Existing contracting arrangements ended on the 18th October 2017.
Cognisant of the UK Government's approach to technology to provide better public services for less cost through disaggregating, optimising, and modernising technology, the authority is considering its wider ICT strategy from 2019 onwards.
Whilst a number of the services that formed part of the original contract have been transitioned to the contracting authority's replacement suppliers, a number of services are yet to be transitioned. These services continue to be required for a defined period beyond 18th October 2017, to enable the exit, decommissioning and phased transition of the services to long term replacement suppliers and to give the authority flexibility with respect to the authority's revised ICT strategy from 2019 onwards.
From a technical perspective, it is not feasible to transition the remaining services to a new supplier for a short period in order to complete the exit activity. The exiting services come at the end of a complex, high value, extended contractual relationship. Given this position, it is the authority's view that it is likely that the cost of appointing a different supplier would not only be prohibitive but also that no other supplier would choose to bid for such a short term appointment where services are expected to diminish over the term. The authority has therefore identified the only viable route is to enter into a contract with the incumbent supplier for the provision of a discrete set of services for a period of 12 months, with the option to require run off services for a period of up to 6 months. The maximum term of the contract is 18 months. The terms and conditions of the contract reflect the expected reduction of the services to be provided over the term.
The absence of competition has not arisen as a result of an artificial narrowing down of the parameters of the procurement.


Winner: Atos IT Services UK Limited
Award value: 45000000
Number of bids: 1