Provision of Electronic Monitoring (EM) Services in Northern Ireland

Concepts

• security services
• provision of electronic monitoring
• northern ireland
• belfast
• electronic monitoring
• scope of em
• provision of services
• electronic tagging
• monitoring services of offenders
• department of justice

Location

As required throughout Northern Ireland

Description

The Department of Justice (DoJ) has awarded a short-term interim contract for the provision of services for Electronic Monitoring (EM) of offenders in Northern Ireland. The Department has statutory obligations under Article 35 of Criminal Justice (Northern Ireland) Order 2008, which provides for EM as a condition of court bail, post-release licence or range of community supervision orders for adults and young persons. The scope of EM is a public protection tool for both the judiciary and for criminal justice agencies monitoring offenders in the community.

Total Quantity or Scope

Electronic tagging and monitoring services of offenders in Northern Ireland.

Award Detail

Award Criteria

CPV Codes

• 79710000 - Security services

Legal Justification

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.

Other Information

** PREVIEW NOTICE, please check Find a Tender for full details. ** Please note that information relating to contractors engaged by the Northern Ireland Department of Justice,and associated bodies, is not published in any publicly accessible forum or publication. This is to protect such contractors, whose security and safety could be threatened by dissident terrorist organisations still active in Northern Ireland if their details became known. This is consistent with Regulation 50(6)(a). The estimated contract value is a broad estimate only and includes additional quantum for unforeseen demand and to future proof. There is no guarantee of any level of business under this contract. The estimate is not deemed to be a condition of contract nor a guarantee of minimum demand or uptake. No compensation will be payable to a contractor should the actual demand be less than that stated. The successful contractor's performance on this contract will be managed as per specification and regularly monitored. Contractors not delivering on contract requirements is a serious matter. It means the public purse is not getting what it is paying for. If a contractor fails to reach satisfactory levels of contract performance they will be given a specified time to improve. If, after the specified time, they still fail to reach satisfactory levels of contract performance, the matter will be escalated to senior management in Construction and Procurement Delivery for further action. If this occurs and their performance still does not improve to satisfactory levels within the specified period, it may be regarded as an act of grave professional misconduct and they may be issued with a notice of written warning and notice of unsatisfactory performance and this contract may be terminated.The issue of a notice of written warning and notice of unsatisfactory performance will result in the Contractor being excluded from all procurement competitions being undertaken by Centres of Procurement Expertise on behalf of bodies covered by the Northern Ireland Procurement Policy for a period of up to 3 yearsfrom the date of issue of the notice.