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HMCTS Legacy Archive Recovery and Digitisation

Ministry of Justice

This public procurement record has 1 release in its history.

Planning

25 Sep 2026 at 10:30

UK2 - Preliminary Market Engagement Notice
Summary of the contracting process

The Ministry of Justice, through His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS), is exploring services to recover and digitise historic court and tribunal index records held on obsolete media. The archive includes microfiche, cassette tapes and a smaller, lower-priority collection of books. Work under consideration spans cataloguing and assessing media, identifying cassette formats and recoverability, high-resolution scanning, data extraction, image enhancement, optical character recognition, indexing, validation and quality assurance. The aim is to make records more searchable and accessible while supporting preservation and reliable future access. Potential delivery could also involve secure repositories, search tools, access controls, audit logs, reporting, service transition, user guidance and business change. The work is for HMCTS; the records are held in its archive, but no delivery location is stated.

This is preliminary market engagement at the planning stage, not an invitation to tender or request for a quotation. HMCTS is gathering evidence on market capability, technical feasibility and delivery options; responses will inform business-case development and possible future procurement, but do not commit HMCTS or the Ministry of Justice to buying services. The buyer’s indicative engagement timeline gives 25 September 2026 for issuing the questionnaire, 22 October 2026 for final clarification questions and 30 October 2026 for questionnaire responses. The potential service period is 5 April 2027 to 31 March 2028. The process is described as a single lot and suitable for SMEs and voluntary, community and social enterprises. The published estimated value is £0; no award evaluation or selection criteria are set for this market research.

This engagement is relevant to suppliers able to evidence capability in specialist digitisation, legacy-media recovery, data extraction, records management, archiving, OCR, data platforms, secure search or related technical consultancy and integration. HMCTS wants to understand supplier capacity, feasible discovery and pilot approaches, implementation and delivery models, phasing, dependencies, risks and cost drivers. Suppliers with experience handling ageing or obsolete media, assessing recoverability, improving scanned images, extracting and validating data, de-duplicating records and managing exceptions may have useful evidence to contribute. Secure repository and search expertise should account for access controls, audit logging and reporting. Any future delivery would need to work within HMCTS governance and appropriate records-management, data-protection, security and information-assurance arrangements. Suppliers may respond individually or describe mixed delivery models; the buyer is also seeking evidence on how existing storage, archive and records-management services could support delivery. This is preparation and market research, not a tender.

How relevant is this notice?

Notice Information

Notice Title

HMCTS Legacy Archive Recovery and Digitisation

Notice Description

The Ministry of Justice, through His Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS), is undertaking preliminary market engagement to support consideration of a potential legacy archive recovery and digitisation requirement relating to historic index records currently held on obsolete media. HMCTS holds a substantial archive of historic index records, primarily across microfiche and cassette media. The current estimated scope includes approximately 20,000 microfiche sheets containing around 2 million records, and 658 cassette media units containing around 6.5 million records. The total estimated archive is therefore approximately 8.5 million records. There are also historic records held in books, although these are currently considered lower volume and lower priority than the microfiche and cassette records. The current arrangements rely on legacy physical and digital media, manual search activity, local operational knowledge and ageing technology. This creates challenges around retrieval speed, consistency, resilience, future access, preservation and the continued availability of the underlying information. HMCTS is therefore exploring market capability that could support the controlled recovery, digitisation, extraction, validation, indexing and searchability of these historic records. The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to improve HMCTS' understanding of market capability relating to: * inventory, cataloguing and condition assessment of microfiche and cassette media; * technical discovery of cassette formats, data structures, hardware or software dependencies and recoverability; * high-resolution microfiche digitisation; * recovery and extraction of data from cassette media; * image enhancement, OCR, intelligent data extraction and confidence scoring; * creation of a common target data model across recovered and digitised records; * validation, de-duplication, exception handling and quality assurance; * secure repository and search capability, including access controls, audit logging and reporting; * service transition, user guidance, business change and benefits tracking. Through this RFI, HMCTS is seeking to better understand: * available market capability and supplier capacity; * how relevant services are normally delivered, for example through specialist digitisation services, legacy media recovery, data extraction, repository/search solutions, managed technical services, consultancy, integration support or mixed delivery models; * indicative discovery, pilot, implementation and delivery approaches; * potential commercial models, procurement routes and phasing options; * legal, data protection, security, records management and information assurance considerations; * indicative costs, cost drivers, timescales, dependencies and delivery risks; * the extent to which existing storage, records management or archive services could support or influence a future delivery route. This RFI is deliberately focused on market capability, technical feasibility and delivery evidence. HMCTS is not asking suppliers to design the future service or make policy, legal, retention, disposal or public access decisions at this stage. Any future capability would need to operate within appropriate HMCTS governance, records management, data protection, security, information assurance, auditability and access control arrangements. This RFI is an evidence-gathering activity only. It is not a request for a quotation, proposal or tender, and it should not be treated as a commitment to any future procurement. The issuing of this RFI does not commit HMCTS or MoJ to procure any services, software, data platforms or solutions; does not indicate any supplier preference; and does not create exclusivity or advantage for suppliers who respond. Responses will be used solely to inform HMCTS' understanding of the market, possible future delivery options, recoverability of legacy media, business case development, affordability, assurance considerations, commercial strategy and potential next-stage routes.

Planning Information

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ), through His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS), is interested in understanding the market’s capacity and capability to support the potential recovery, digitisation, extraction, validation, indexing and searchability of historic records currently held on legacy media, including microfiche and cassette media. The purpose of this notice is to enable suppliers to respond to the RFI. Interested parties are required to complete the following actions: 1. Register for an account through the MoJ Sourcing Portal at https://ministryofjusticecommercial.bravosolution.co.uk 2. Navigate to the left side menu and click on 'PQQs Open to All Suppliers' > find and click on 'PQQ_628 HMCTS Legacy Archive Recovery and Digitisation Request for Information’ - No response is required at this stage other than expressing an interest to access the RFI documentation and questionnaire. 3. Suppliers must express an interest by clicking 'Express interest' and will then be able to view the detail relating to market engagement. The questionnaire is located in the Technical Response section of the PQQ. Please return responses or questions via the messaging function. Indicative timeline 25th September 2026 (Questionnaire issued and UK2 notice published) 22nd October 2026 deadline for final clarification questions 30th October 2026 (Deadline to submit responses to questionnaire) The PQQ_628 HMCTS Legacy Archive Recovery and Digitisation Request for Information is being used as a mechanism for the RFI and no feedback or responses to engagement will affect your ability to tender for contracts in the future. Responses are not evaluated. Nothing in this notice constitutes a commitment by HMCTS or MoJ to commence a procurement or award a contract. Suppliers are responsible for all costs associated with preparing and submitting a response. HMCTS and MoJ will not reimburse any costs incurred through participation in this market engagement. Suppliers should base their responses on the information reasonably available to them at the time of submission. The Engagement deadline in this notice reflects the closing date for questionnaire submission by Suppliers.

Notice Details

Publication & Lifecycle

Open Contracting ID
ocds-h6vhtk-077a37
Publication Source
Find A Tender Service
Latest Notice
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/090859-2026
Current Stage
Planning
All Stages
Planning

Procurement Classification

Notice Type
UK2 - Preliminary Market Engagement Notice
Procurement Type
Standard
Procurement Category
Services
Procurement Method
Not Specified
Procurement Method Details
Not specified
Tender Suitability
SME, VCSE
Awardee Scale
Not specified

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

CPV Divisions

48 - Software package and information systems

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

79 - Business services: law, marketing, consulting, recruitment, printing and security

CPV Codes

48311100 - Document management system

48313000 - Optical-character-recognition (OCR) software package

72222300 - Information technology services

72252000 - Computer archiving services

72310000 - Data-processing services

72322000 - Data management services

72512000 - Document management services

79995100 - Archiving services

79999100 - Scanning services

Notice Value(s)

Tender Value
Not specified
Lots Value
Not specified
Awards Value
Not specified
Contracts Value
Not specified

Notice Dates

Publication Date
25 Sep 20261 weeks ago
Submission Deadline
Not specified
Future Notice Date
Not specified
Award Date
Not specified
Contract Period
5 Apr 2027 - 31 Mar 2028 6-12 months
Recurrence
Not specified

Notice Status

Tender Status
Planning
Lots Status
Planning
Awards Status
Not Specified
Contracts Status
Not Specified

Buyer & Supplier

Contracting Authority (Buyer)

Main Buyer
Ministry of Justice
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
SW1H 9AJ
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

Further Information

Notice Documents

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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