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RPA Vendor Support

DEPARTMENT FOR ENVIRONMENT, FOOD & RURAL AFFAIRS

This public procurement record has 1 release in its history.

Award

01 Oct 2026 at 12:40

Award Notice
Summary of the contracting process

The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) procured IT vendor support for the Rural Payments Agency’s Rural Payments Service. The service runs across two datacentres, supporting development, testing and disaster recovery at one site and production at the other. The business-critical system includes the Rural Payments Portal (Siti Agri), Customer Portal and database, Land Management System and Data Warehouse. Support is intended to maintain service continuity for payments to landowners while Defra considers longer-term options for cloud migration. The procurement is for services delivered in the United Kingdom.

The procurement is complete and was awarded to Insight Direct (UK) Ltd. The award was made on 24 September 2026 for £559,314.82. The contract period runs from 17 September 2026 to 16 September 2029, with a three-year initial term and two possible one-year extensions. Defra used a selective call-off from a framework agreement. The tender deadline was 17 September 2026. The procurement was marked suitable for small and medium-sized businesses and voluntary, community and social enterprises. No lots or evaluation criteria are recorded in the supplied details.

This award shows continuing demand from Defra for specialist vendor support to keep the Rural Payments Service operating across development, test, disaster recovery and production environments. Competitors for a future requirement of this kind would need to demonstrate they can support a mixed estate of business-critical portals, databases, land-management applications and data warehousing, while protecting continuity of payments to landowners. Experience supporting legacy systems alongside services undergoing transition planning would be relevant, as would the capacity to work across multiple datacentres and sustain both operational and recovery environments. The selected supplier was a large company, but the procurement was identified as suitable for smaller businesses and voluntary-sector suppliers too. The route used was a framework call-off, so framework access and capability to deliver within that route are commercially relevant.

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Notice Information

Notice Title

RPA Vendor Support

Notice Description

The requirement is for Rural Payments Agency (RPA) vendor support which is hosted across two datacentres, one for Development, Test and Disaster Recovery and the other for Production. Rural Payments Service (RPS) comprises of business critical applications including the Rural Payments Portal - Siti Agri, the Customer Portal and database, the Land Management System (LMS) and the Data Warehouse (DWH). It is expected that some components will be replaced over the coming years, however there are others that are likely to remain for some time. It is likely that the Customer Portal and Payments Portal will remain in operation for several years until transition plans are confirmed. This is a critical service requirement, without this contract Defra Group will not be able to guarantee service continuity in enabling the RPS to make payments to landowners. This strategy is to safeguard a specific service that Defra requires and to investigate other longer-term options to move to the cloud and become more cloud native. This is a critical service requirement, without this contract Defra Group will not be able to guarantee service continuity in enabling the RPS to make payments to landowners. The initial call off period is for 3 years with the possibility of 1+1 extension options to ensure continuity of a critical requirement.

Notice Details

Publication & Lifecycle

Open Contracting ID
ocds-b5fd17-3ff86939-91a9-43b0-b821-2d7f7436d06b
Publication Source
Contracts Finder
Latest Notice
https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/f7fce0b4-1f3e-4c9c-9e6a-140634fdf04d
Current Stage
Award
All Stages
Award

Procurement Classification

Notice Type
Award Notice
Procurement Type
Framework
Procurement Category
Services
Procurement Method
Selective
Procurement Method Details
Call-off from a framework agreement
Tender Suitability
SME, VCSE
Awardee Scale
Large

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

CPV Divisions

72 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support

CPV Codes

72000000 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support

Notice Value(s)

Tender Value
£560,000 £500K-£1M
Lots Value
Not specified
Awards Value
£559,314 £500K-£1M
Contracts Value
Not specified

Notice Dates

Publication Date
1 Oct 20265 days ago
Submission Deadline
Not specified
Future Notice Date
Not specified
Award Date
24 Sep 20261 weeks ago
Contract Period
17 Sep 2026 - 16 Sep 2029 3-4 years
Recurrence
Not specified

Notice Status

Tender Status
Complete
Lots Status
Not Specified
Awards Status
Active
Contracts Status
Not Specified

Buyer & Supplier

Contracting Authority (Buyer)

Main Buyer
DEPARTMENT FOR ENVIRONMENT, FOOD & RURAL AFFAIRS
Contact Name
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Contact Email
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Contact Phone
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →

Buyer Location

Locality
LONDON
Postcode
SW1P 3JR
Postcode Area
South West London
Country
England
Major Region (ITL 1)
TLI London
Basic Region (ITL 2)
TLI3 Inner London - West
Small Region (ITL 3)
TLI35 Westminster and City of London
Delivery Location
Not specified
Local Authority
Westminster
Electoral Ward
St James's
Westminster Constituency
Cities of London and Westminster

Supplier Information

Number of Suppliers
1
Supplier Name

Insight Direct (UK) Ltd

Further Information

Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS)

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The Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) is a framework designed to increase transparency and access to public procurement data in the public sector. It is widely used by governments and organisations worldwide to report on procurement processes and contracts.

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