DD2453 GovTech London: Single Source Justification

The Mayor’s Economic Development Strategy prioritises the Mayor’s commitment to “support the growth of the GovTech sector to help bring the best ideas to market”, as a part of the recognition that Advanced Urban Services are one of London’s seven key priority sectors. Moreover, the Smarter London Together Roadmap, with its focus on delivering ‘more user designed services’, and to ‘improve city wide collaboration’ sets out three clear means of achieving this:

• supporting public service digital and data leadership;
• establishing the London Office of Technology and Innovation; and
• exploring new tech partnerships and business models – including specifically how to clarify the public sector market to tech SMEs.

Expenditure of £75,000 of LEAP funding on the GovTech.London tool was approved under cover of DD 2383 and is aimed at supporting innovative SMEs to prepare themselves for working with the public sector, and helping London’s boroughs better communicate their needs to earlier stage start-ups.

After consulting with both the supplier base, and the London Office of Technology and Innovation, work was scoped and requests for quotations were sent out for the first phase of the work – the tools which would:

• allow SMEs to understand which public sector bodies deliver which services in London
• explain the various routes to procurement for suppliers.

The tender was won by Nitrous Limited, which proposed a platform-based solution, that will pull data in from sources such as Contracts Finder and others, as well as allowing suppliers and local authorities to create profiles and communicate with one another. The GLA is currently under contract with Nitrous Limited for £32,500 to deliver this work, and this decision would award a further £24,950 to Nitrous Limited.

As outlined in DD2383, the objectives of the project are to:

• provide clarity to the GovTech supplier base about where, and how they can find opportunities to contract with the public sector in London, alongside information and support regarding the processes this will entail;
• allow GovTech suppliers and local authorities to better understand one another’s needs and capabilities, through presenting standardised and simplified information on products and services; and
• support the creation of new contracting opportunities from London’s boroughs which are designed with the needs of SME suppliers in mind, through a ‘GovTech Surgeries’ event series.

Officers acknowledge that section 9 of the GLA’s Contract and Funding Code requires, where the expected value of contract for services is between £10,000 and £150,000, that such services be procured completely or called off from an accessible framework. Section 10 provides however, that an exemption from this requirement may be approved where a supplier has had previous involvement in a specific current project or the services concerned are a continuation of existing work that cannot be separated from the new project/work. Here the further work to be commissioned:

• must interoperate with the system being built by Nitrous, and should an alternative supplier be successful it would require Nitrous to share potentially commercially sensitive information or add additional cost through an inability to come to such an agreement; and
• Nitrous, already having won the first tender, are in a stronger position relative to other potential suppliers and so it is unlikely that another supplier would be able to submit a more economically advantageous bid for the work than Nitrous. It would represent poor value for money and could result in missed opportunities should we build two non-interoperating pieces of work.

Given the above and because the total aggregated value of the work which it is proposed be undertaken by Nitrous falls below the thresholds mandating competitive procurement activity officers are of the view that the further work should be commissioned from Nitrous.

The additional funding will be used as originally planned. The total work awarded to Nitrous will not exceed £60,000 and includes the entirety of the ‘Cross-functionality with existing public sector innovation platforms’ and ‘Supplier Database’ costs named below. However it also includes ‘Research into procurement opportunities’ and some GovTech sector marketing from the ‘Engagement and Comms’ cost. The remaining £15,000 in the budget will be used as originally stated on events and marketing.

The funding will come from the LEAP Core budget for 2019-20, though due to a lengthy contract negotiation period, the project is running behind schedule and the spending is likely to take place in 2020-21.

Under Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, as a public authority, the Mayor of London must have ‘due regard’ of the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation as well as to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between people who have a protected characteristic and those who do not.

Strategic equality, diversity and inclusion objectives are enshrined within the GLA’s programmes and activities according to the Mayor’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy.

The programme will be promoted through a wide variety of channels to reach out to underrepresented groups, and we will ensure that as suppliers are brought onto the database and platforms associated with the project, we monitor for diversity and inclusion.

GovTech refers to a broad category of solutions which will sell into the public sector, and therefore has the potential to touch upon areas of service delivery itself covered by the Equality Act 2010. During the process we will ensure that providers and users are reminded of their responsibilities under the Act, and that innovative products and services must ensure they comply with the law.

Key Risks and Issues

The below risk register outlines the major risks to the project. It has been updated from DD2382 to reflect the work undertaken to date, and the need for a single source award.

Links to Mayoral Strategies and Priorities

The Mayor’s Economic Development Strategy prioritises the Mayor’s commitment to “support the growth of the GovTech sector to help bring the best ideas to market”, as a part of the recognition that Advanced Urban Services are one of London’s 7 key priority sectors. Moreover the Smarter London Together Roadmap, with its focus on delivering ‘more user designed services’, and to ‘improve city wide collaboration’ sets out three clear means of achieving this:

• Supporting public service digital and data leadership;
• Establishing the London Office of Technology and Innovation; and
• Exploring new tech partnerships and business models – including specifically how to clarify the public sector market to tech SMEs.

GovTech.London thus brings together the aims of the Economic Development Strategy in its support for the GovTech sector and how it can grow through access to market, with the delivery of the Smarter London Together Roadmap and its focus on better service delivery.

Officers working on this project and in the wider team confirm that there are no conflicts of interest arising with regard to the single source decision.

DD2383 previously approved the expenditure of £75,000 on external services for the GovTech London Programme. This decision seeks approval to award Nitrous Ltd up to £60,000 of this by way of contract for their services.

As this proposal is funded by the LEAP’s core budget, which in turn is derived from HM Government funds, a carry forward request will need to be made to accommodate the slippage of this programme into financial year 2020-21 as highlighted in point 2.5.

The foregoing sections of this report indicate that the decision requested of the Director (in accordance with the GLA’s Contracts and Funding Code) concern the exercise of the GLA’s general powers, falling within the GLA’s statutory powers to do such things considered to further or which are facilitative of, conducive or incidental to the promotion of economic development and wealth creation, social development or the promotion of the improvement of the environment in Greater London; and in formulating the proposals in respect of which a decision is sought officers have complied with the Authority’s related statutory duties to:

• pay due regard to the principle that there should be equality of opportunity for all people;
• consider how the proposals will promote the improvement of health of persons, health inequalities between persons and to contribute towards the achievement of sustainable development in the United Kingdom; and
• consult with appropriate bodies.

In taking the decisions requested, the Directors must have due regard to the Public Sector Equality Duty; namely the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010 and to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic (race, disability, gender, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief, pregnancy and maternity and gender reassignment) and persons who do not share it (section 149 of the Equality Act 2010). To this end, the Director should have particular regard to section 3 (above) of this report.

Section 9.1 of the Contracts and Funding Code (the ‘Code’) requires the GLA to call-off services with a value of that concerned here from a suitable framework, where possible, or if not, to undertake a formal tender process which will be managed by TfL Commercial in respect of the services. However, the Executive Director may approve an exemption from this requirement under section 10 of the Code upon certain specified grounds. One of those grounds is that a contract may let without competition where a supplier has had previous involvement in a specific current project or the services concerned are a continuation of existing work that cannot be separated from the new project/work. Officers have indicated at section 2 of this report that this ground applies and that the proposed contracts affords value for money. On this basis the Executive Director may approve the proposed exemption if satisfied with the content of this report.

In the event that the Executive Director makes the decisions sought officers must ensure that a contract is entered into and executed by the GLA and Nitrous Limited or the GLA’s current contract with Nitrous Limited is varied before the commencement of the additional services.