DMFD31 Information and Communication Technology – Hardware Maintenance

The Brigade provides first and second level support to all of its ICT users via an in-house ICT Service Desk staffed between the hours of 08.30 – 17.30 Monday to Friday, excluding Bank Holidays. Outside of these hours first level support is provided by the ICT Operational Support Team (known as ‘The Bridge’).

First level support will be provided by the Brigade’s ICT Service Desk who will log all incidents onto the Service Management System (SMS) employed by the Brigade for this purpose. Having identified the fault, the Brigade’s ICT Service Desk will pass incidents to the appropriate resolving agent for a fix to be undertaken or a replacement to be provided (using product warranty where available) within the prescribed service level. Where equipment has been identified as being redundant or beyond economic repair, environmental disposal in full compliance with the relevant legislative and Brigade specific requirements is undertaken and asset details and disposal certificates provided, as necessary.

Report LFC-0176 to the London Fire Commissioner sought approval to accept a tender for the provision of Information and Communication Technology hardware maintenance and support (‘break/fix’) and associated services. The Commissioner’s Board have considered and recommended the proposal to the Commissioner, who has indicated in-principle support pending prior consent to spend from the Deputy Mayor. The Deputy Mayor for Fire and Resilience also considered the proposals to the Commissioner in report LFC-0176 at her Fire and Resilience Board on 14 May 2019 and indicated her support.

2.1. The Brigade currently has a contract for desktop, server and network hardware support and maintenance (break/fix) which it is seeking to re-procure. The main elements of the service required can be summarised as follows:

a) Hardware maintenance for desktop equipment at all Brigade locations, the predominance of which are zero client (10ZiG) devices.
b) Hardware maintenance for mobile equipment (like laptops and Tablets), although these devices are predominantly under warranty or on extended support from the manufacturer. This ’mobile equipment’ does not include mobile phones, which are covered under different arrangements.
c) Hardware maintenance for servers and peripheral devices including the tape libraries and fabric switches associated with those servers.
d) Hardware maintenance for network equipment, including hubs, switches, routers, cards and power supplies.
e) Installations, moves and upgrades including the installation of additional devices, the removal and re-siting of equipment in connection with office relocations and the upgrade of existing equipment to meet changing requirements. Installations may include the building of devices using standard builds provided by the Brigade and the racking and decommissioning of servers as required. Connection to relevant network device(s) is also required.
f) Maintenance of printers: The Brigade has plans to move to a leased multi-function device (MFD) model for printing at all locations. However, the existing estate of printing equipment contains a large number of aging LaserJet printers and these will need to be maintained as an interim arrangement under the new contract.

The Public Sector Equality Duty applies to the London Fire Commissioner and Deputy Mayor for Fire and Resilience when they make decisions. The duty requires them to have regard to the need to:

a) Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other behaviour prohibited by the Act. In summary, the Act makes discrimination etc. on the grounds of a protected characteristic unlawful.
b) Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.
c) Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not including tackling prejudice and promoting understanding.

The protected characteristics are age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, marriage and civil partnership, race, religion or belief, gender, and sexual orientation. The Act states that ‘marriage and civil partnership’ is not a relevant protected characteristic for (b) or (c) although it is relevant for (a).

An Equalities Impact Assessment (EIA) has been carried out in respect the new break/fix service. The main elements of the service required, which are similar to the existing contract service, are summarised above.

The London Fire Commissioner has considered the proposals and their duty under the Act to eliminate unlawful discrimination, advance equality of opportunity, and foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not, as has the Deputy Mayor for Fire and Resilience at the Fire and Resilience Board on 14 May 2019.

The EIA assesses that the system itself will not have a disproportionately adverse effect on any persons with a particular characteristic due to no change in process nor availability of appropriate equipment. The London Fire Commissioner and the Deputy Mayor for Fire and Resilience have considered the duties, including those to advance equality of opportunity acknowledging that no further action is required.

Procurement

The LFB Director of Corporate Services initiated procurement for a hardware break/fix service on 3 March 2018. The Director subsequently initiated the tendering process which has been carried out by ICT and Procurement department staff, using an approved procurement framework.

The procurement was carried out utilising the collaborative Crown Commercial Service (CCS) Framework RM3804 ‘Technology Services 2’ Lot 3A (end-user services). A mini-competition was carried out and this entailed issuing the Invitation to Tender (ITT) to 103 suppliers under this lot. It was published on 10 January 2019 and the deadline for responses was 15 February 2019. 24 expressions of interest were received, resulting in five companies submitting bid responses.

The evaluation criteria consisted of a number of mandatory pass/fail criteria. The price element was weighted at 30 per cent, and the quality element at 70 per cent.

Sustainability

The appointed contractor will, wherever possible, aim to re-use equipment which is removed and replaced. For assets which no longer meet LFB’s requirements, a remarketing service is offered based on a profit share agreement, whereby The LFC will receive 80 per cent revenue return on any profits made from re-sale of redundant IT assets. As an average the contractors recycling will re-purpose over 70 per cent of legacy assets returned, either through remarketing or using parts for spares. This promotes the WEEE directive which is better to reuse as opposed to dispose.

The contractor will dispose of assets which cannot be repurposed using in-house, secure, WEEE-compliant disposal processes and facilities.

The contractor operates a zero-landfill policy; this is underpinned by ISO 14001 accredited Environmental Management System. Any resultant granulated product is passed onto third-party re-processors.

All third-party recycling re-processors are subject to an audit process which involves a site visit to specifically look at regulatory compliance, management systems / personnel, community affairs, facility operations, environmental setting, security and facility design.

All on boarded re-processors operate to a zero-landfill policy to ensure all waste fractions are turned into raw materials for re-use. Regular re-processor licence/registration checks are also made to ensure all repressors remain listed on Environment Agency (EA) registers.

Strategic drivers

Page 55 of the London Safety Plan sets out the Commissioner’s digital vision for the London Fire Brigade, including the recognition of the importance of re-orienting the Brigade; strong digital community interactions; information management and availability; and staff facilities and skills, for example. Report LFC-0176 proposes services to the Commissioner that fundamentally underpin these objectives.

Report LFC-0176 to the London Fire Commissioner seeks approval to accept a tender for the provision of Information and Communication Technology hardware maintenance and support at a revenue cost not exceeding £1.2m over four years.

The revenue budget currently available for this is set at £399k annually. Whilst actual spend will vary from year-to-year, this new contract is likely to result in a saving over the life of the contract, estimated at £130k in the first year. Any resulting underspend will be reported on as part of the regular financial position reports in 2019/20 and any ongoing saving will be considered as part of the budget process for future years.

The expenditure is to be funded through sums available to the Commissioner. There are no direct financial implications for the GLA.

Under section 9 of the Policing and Crime Act 2017, the London Fire Commissioner (the "Commissioner") is established as a corporation sole with the Mayor appointing the occupant of that office. Under section 327D of the GLA Act 1999, as amended by the Policing and Crime Act 2017, the Mayor may issue to the Commissioner specific or general directions as to the manner in which the holder of that office is to exercise his or her functions.

By direction dated 1 April 2018, the Mayor set out those matters, for which the Commissioner would require the prior approval of either the Mayor or the Deputy Mayor for Fire and Resilience (the "Deputy Mayor").

Paragraph (b) of Part 2 of the said direction requires the Commissioner to seek the prior approval of the Deputy Mayor before “[a] commitment to expenditure (capital or revenue) of £150k or above as identified in accordance with normal accounting practices…”.

The Deputy Mayor's approval is accordingly required for the London Fire Commissioner to procure hardware support and maintenance at a total cost of up to £1.2 million.

The statutory basis for the actions proposed in this report is provided by section 5A of the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 which allows the Commissioner to procure services they consider appropriate for purposes incidental to their functional purposes.

The General Counsel to the Commissioner also noted that the proposed service has been procured in compliance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. The Crown Commercial Service have conducted a compliant OJEU procurement in accordance with section 33 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 to set up RM3804 ‘Technology Services 2’ Lot 3A (End user Services), from which the Commissioner is able to make a compliant call-off.

In taking the decisions requested, the Deputy Mayor 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 Deputy Mayor should have particular regard to section 3 (above) of this report.