Notice Information
Notice Title
DoJ Provision of Electronic Monitoring Services in Northern Ireland
Notice Description
The Department of Justice (DOJ) require a contract for the provision of services for the Electronic Monitoring (EM) of offenders in Northern Ireland. The scope of EM is a public protection tool for both for the judiciary and for the criminal justice agencies monitoring offenders in the community. The Criminal Justice (Northern Ireland ) Order 2008 ("the 2008 Order") provides that electronic monitoring services are made available to facilitate effective monitoring of offenders' compliance with curfew conditions aimed at enhancing their supervision and limiting their opportunity to reoffend. EM is a key public protection tool for both for the judiciary and for the criminal justice agencies (CJA) who monitor offenders in the community. The four CJA clients using EM services are: * NI Court Service (NICTS); *Police Service NI (PSNI); * NI Prison Service (NIPS); and * Probation Board NI (PBNI). EM currently monitors adherence to curfews requiring the confinement of the subject within the boundaries of an approved address for a period of between 2 and 12 hours per day. It uses an electronic tag fitted to a subject which sends a signal to a receiver unit located at the curfew address - usually the subject's home. During the hours of the curfew, breaks in the signal (where the tag goes out of range of the receiver) indicate that a curfew violation has occurred and are verified and reported by the service provider to the appropriate supervising CJA. The monitoring information EM provides can be presented at court to confirm curfew condition violations or support the prosecution case in relation to any other offences which may have been committed whilst being monitored. It therefore plays an important role in levels of public confidence, hampers the ability of an offender to reoffend (during the curfew hours when the court believes they are at greatest risk of re-offending) and can provide valuable information to statutory authorities which can be used to support the detection and prosecution of crime.
Lot Information
Lot 1
The Department of Justice (DOJ) require a contract for the provision of services for the Electronic Monitoring (EM) of offenders in Northern Ireland. The scope of EM is a public protection tool for both for the judiciary and for the criminal justice agencies monitoring offenders in the community. The Criminal Justice (Northern Ireland ) Order 2008 ("the 2008 Order") provides that electronic monitoring services are made available to facilitate effective monitoring of offenders' compliance with curfew conditions aimed at enhancing their supervision and limiting their opportunity to reoffend. EM is a key public protection tool for both for the judiciary and for the criminal justice agencies (CJA) who monitor offenders in the community. The four CJA clients using EM services are: * NI Court Service (NICTS); *Police Service NI (PSNI); * NI Prison Service (NIPS); and * Probation Board NI (PBNI). EM currently monitors adherence to curfews requiring the confinement of the subject within the boundaries of an approved address for a period of between 2 and 12 hours per day. It uses an electronic tag fitted to a subject which sends a signal to a receiver unit located at the curfew address - usually the subject's home. During the hours of the curfew, breaks in the signal (where the tag goes out of range of the receiver) indicate that a curfew violation has occurred and are verified and reported by the service provider to the appropriate supervising CJA. The monitoring information EM provides can be presented at court to confirm curfew condition violations or support the prosecution case in relation to any other offences which may have been committed whilst being monitored. It therefore plays an important role in levels of public confidence, hampers the ability of an offender to reoffend (during the curfew hours when the court believes they are at greatest risk of re-offending) and can provide valuable information to statutory authorities which can be used to support the detection and prosecution of crime.
Options: The Contract will be for an initial period of five (5) years, with scope for two further extensions, of three (3) and two (2) years. If both extension periods are used, the total contract period will be ten (10) years.
Procurement Information
DoJ awarded a contract in 2018, which was terminated prior to going live. To ensure service continuity, DoJ extended the existing contract while a new competitive process was initiated in January 2020. Pre-market engagement responses were receipted early 2020 and about to be assessed when the COVID pandemic hit. The new process had to be put on hold immediately as DoJ and CPD resources were prioritised to COVID response activities. DoJ had to ensure delivery of business as usual for this critical service while working around constraints and working conditions imposed by the pandemic. The current contract was due to expire in October 2022. Provision of this service is a statutory requirement under the Criminal Justice (NI) Order 2008 and there are serious legal and public protection ramifications if it is not in place. Lack of service would significantly impact on the ability to manage the risk of those on bail or those who have been released subject to licence conditions, who are often released on the basis of an EM curfew being in place. In Northern Ireland, there is the added risk and profile of tagging high risk terrorist subjects, with substantial legal scrutiny and press interest in this matter. There are derogations under the Public Contracts Regulations to award a contract where the supplies or services can only be supplied by a particular supplier for the following reasons: - a) Where competition is absent for technical reasons (regulation 32(2) (b) (ii)); but only, where no reasonable alternative or substitute exists and the absence of competition is not the result of an artificial narrowing down of the parameters of the procurement. b) Regulation 32(5)(b) for additional deliveries by the original supplier which are intended either as a partial replacement of supplies or installations or as the extension of existing supplies or installations where a change of supplier would oblige the contracting authority to acquire supplies having different technical characteristics which would result in incompatibility or disproportionate technical difficulties in operation and maintenance. The current service is very complex, high risk with serious legal ramifications if it fails e.g. adverse public protection outcomes, including in respect of terrorist related offenders; legal challenges and associated financial penalties for the department; ECHR and deprivation of liberty related issues where EM is not available to manage release on bail or licence. There are high switching costs and high technical thresholds which require a significant period of testing to satisfy the Department and stakeholders that another provider could deliver the service to the required standard. This would include multiple field and breach reporting tests, equipment/hardware tests, process testing and interoperability with existing DOJ/CJO systems. Pre-market engagement was completed to aid the new procurement process which identified a lack of awareness/understanding of the NI Criminal Justice system, and highlighted that a limited number of suppliers had any geographic footprint locally. This is a specialist and limited market. As equipment and installations are a large proportion of the contract, retaining the incumbent is the only option. It will be VFM in that there is stable, quality service delivery that will ensure the Department can deliver its statutory obligations. There will be no requirement to purchase new equipment until the new contract is in place. Any other provider would have to bring in new equipment/new technology etc all of which would need to be robustly tested over time. This will be an interim contract to ensure continuity of services while a tender process (already initiated) occurs. The anticipated go live date is 1st April 2024. The tender opportunity and Contract Notice will be advertised in FTS in due course.
Notice Details
Publication & Lifecycle
- Open Contracting ID
- ocds-h6vhtk-0367a9
- Publication Source
- Find A Tender Service
- Latest Notice
- https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/011897-2025
- Current Stage
- Award
- All Stages
- Award
Procurement Classification
- Notice Type
- Award Notice
- Procurement Type
- Standard
- Procurement Category
- Services
- Procurement Method
- Selective
- Procurement Method Details
- Competitive procedure with negotiation
- Tender Suitability
- Not specified
- Awardee Scale
- Large
Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)
- CPV Divisions
79 - Business services: law, marketing, consulting, recruitment, printing and security
-
- CPV Codes
79710000 - Security services
79714000 - Surveillance services
Notice Value(s)
- Tender Value
- Not specified
- Lots Value
- Not specified
- Awards Value
- Not specified
- Contracts Value
- £22,400,000 £10M-£100M
Notice Dates
- Publication Date
- 31 Mar 20251 years ago
- Submission Deadline
- Not specified
- Future Notice Date
- Not specified
- Award Date
- 6 Sep 20223 years ago
- Contract Period
- Not specified - Not specified
- Recurrence
- Not specified
Notice Status
- Tender Status
- Complete
- Lots Status
- Cancelled
- Awards Status
- Active
- Contracts Status
- Active
Buyer & Supplier
Contracting Authority (Buyer)
- Main Buyer
- Department of Justice
- Additional Buyers
- Contact Name
- Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
- Contact Email
- Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
- Contact Phone
- Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Buyer Location
- Locality
- BELFAST
- Postcode
- BT3 9ED
- Postcode Area
- Northern Ireland
- Country
- Northern Ireland
-
- Major Region (ITL 1)
- TLN Northern Ireland
- Basic Region (ITL 2)
- TLN0 Northern Ireland
- Small Region (ITL 3)
- TLN06 Belfast
- Delivery Location
- TLN Northern Ireland
-
- Local Authority
- Belfast
- Electoral Ward
- Sydenham
- Westminster Constituency
- Belfast East
Further Information
Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS)
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.