Public procurement notice: Prior Information Notice Without Call For Competition
Published: 2016-11-16
Buyer: Office for National Statistics
Country: UK
Region: UNITED KINGDOM
Contract type: Services
CPV classification: 63120000 | 63121000 | 63121100

Technical requirements: The Office for National Statistics (ONS) are looking for suppliers to provide uplift and secure storage of a large volume of HM Government records over a 25-year period. The records are classified as OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE according to the Government Security Classification Scheme and will not be required for retrieval during the storage period excepting the potential for the uplift of large volumes of or all of the records at pre-agreed break points in any agreed contract. There are in the region of thirty-four (34) linear miles of paper records to be uplifted and stored.
This notice is to quantify interest from a wide range of potential suppliers and to advertise an upcoming market engagement event.
ONS is the UK's largest independent producer of official statistics and is the recognised national statistical institute for the UK. Formally, it is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority, a non-Ministerial Department established by the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007. It is responsible for collecting and publishing statistics related to the economy, population and society at national, regional and local levels. ONS plays a leading role in national and international good practice in the production of official statistics.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS), has historically generated large volumes of secure and confidential paper records during the course of performing its responsibilities for collecting and publishing statistics related to the economy, population and society at national, regional and local levels.
ONS has a requirement to outsource the storage of a large volume of these paper records in order to deliver operational and financial efficiencies.
The retention period of these records is longer than the current HM Government storage framework and the security level required for their storage is high. These factors have made it necessary for ONS to tender for the services required outside of standard Government framework agreements.
— Securely transport the uplifted records to a UK secure storage facility(s) maintaining chain of custody and high security throughout the transfer process.
— Securely store the records in a single UK location for a contract period of twenty-five (25) years.
— The Supplier shall provide secure and environmentally stable storage areas which comply with HM Government's Security Classifications and minimise the risks to the Records stored. This shall comprise storage environments which must include but may not be limited to the following security classifications/standards:
o ONS records cannot be stored in a shared storage environment; in other words, the records must be in a locked and secure separate area which does not contain records from any other client of the contracted supplier.
o The Supplier will only be permitted to have an inventory of the containers holding the records to be stored and will at no time have a record of the contents of those containers.
o No record retrieval will be permitted for the duration of the storage period excepting bulk extraction of sections of records or all records at pre-agreed points in the contract signed with the supplier
As the ONS outline requirements are extensive and specific we are open to different suggested methodologies for the uplift and transportation process. Also, as the volume of records is large and the contract time frame is longer than usual it is felt that discussing the options with interested suppliers would be of benefit. For these reasons a market engagement event has been scheduled.
Suppliers that are interested in this potential tender opportunity are invited to take part in a Market Engagement day.
— Visit to view the current storage location (depending on numbers this may be scheduled for an alternative date).