PCD 1417 Emergency Boarding Up and Locksmith Services

PCD 1417 Emergency Boarding Up and Locksmith Services

This paper relates to the provision of a boarding up and locksmith service to secure property where forced entry has been made and where the home owner or occupier is not on scene.  It seeks approval for a contract value uplift of £446,000 to take account of increased prices and demand for the remaining 12 months of the current contract, and to initiate procurement for a national framework for the re-provision of the service with effect from 1 March 2024.  The estimated national framework value is between £6,400,000-£9,000,000 over a upto 4 year term, with the MPS estimated 4 year contract call-off value estimated at £2,200,000. 

Recommendation:  

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to:   

1. Approve a £446,000 uplift to the contract value to the MPS spend under the National Framework for the Provision of Emergency Boarding Up and Locksmith Services to cover spend in 2023/24.   

2. Approve a new replacement tender for a National Service solution for the Provision of Emergency Boarding Up and Locksmith Services with an agreement value of £6,400,000 - £9,000,000 over the potential full four-year period (3+1). 

3. To delegate authority to award to Commercial Services Director, following the successful conclusion of the new competition 

1. Introduction and background  

The MPS have a legal obligation under Police and Criminal Evidence (PACE) code of Practice B paragraph 6.13(e) to secure property where forced entry has been made and where the home owner or occupier is not on scene.   

Where police have used force to enter a property and the home owner is not on scene police will contact the Emergency Boarding Up service to secure the property pending a permanent repair by the home owner. 

The MPS only pay for Emergency Boarding Up where the MPS have forced entry: 

• To execute a warrant; 

• To arrest a suspect; 

• To search a property after an arrest; 

• To comply with a Court Order; 

• To gain access to a suspected crime scene; 

• Life and Limb cases depending on the circumstances. 

The home owner/occupier pays for the Emergency Boarding Up where the damage is the result of: 

• Criminal damage; 

• Burglary; 

• Insecure premises. 

The existing contract has incurred costs quicker than expected due to additional demand and higher costs.  The contract for the supply of this service expires on 1 March 2024.  

2.   Issues for consideration 

The additional demand and higher costs incurred in the first three years of the current contract arise from additional demand during Covid, primarily due to welfare checks, and increasing costs of raw material - reflecting the increase in price of wood by 20% and metal by 10% as a result of the war in Ukraine. 

The London Fire and Rescue Service (LFRS) receive enhanced training and equipment which enables entry to a property for the ‘collapse behind closed doors’ call outs without causing any damage. The MPS will ensure that the new contract will continue to facilitate the current collaboration with LFRS and London Ambulane Service. 

Award of this contract will ensure that service provision is maintained to support operational policing by ensuring a prompt response enabling officers to leave the scene secured. 

3.   Financial Comments  

The estimated additional contract value required to maintain the service until the current contract expires on 1 March 2024 is £446,000 which the MPS has assured can be met from within existing budgets. 

The estimated framework value over the upto 4 year contract term is between £6,400,000-£9,000,000, of which the MPS call-off contract value is estimated at £2,200,000. The MPS assure that these contract costs will be met from within existing budgets. 

4.  Legal Comments 

The Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (“MOPAC”) is a contracting authority as defined in the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (“the Regulations”).  All awards of, and variations to, public contracts for goods and/or services valued at £213,477 or above shall be procured in accordance with the Regulations.  This report confirms the value of the proposed contract and uplift exceeds this threshold. 

Request to increase value of current contract 

• Regulation 72 permits MOPAC to modify a contract in limited circumstances.  Specifically, regulation 72(1)(b) provides MOPAC may modify a contract where: 

• It is not possible to change contractor due to technical or economic reasons; and 

• To change contractor would cause MOPAC to suffer significant inconvenience or substantial costs duplication. 

provided the value of the modification does not exceed 50% of the value of the original contract.  This report confirms the above are met (the value of the modification is 29.7% of the original contract value) and so compliant with the regulations. 

The MOPAC Scheme of Delegation and Consent provides the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime (“DMPC”) has delegated authority to approve: 

• All unforeseen variations and extensions to contracts with an original value of £500,000 or above, when the variation or extension is greater than 10% of the original value and/or is for a period of more than 12 months. 

Request to go to market for new contract 

• The MPS Legal Services confirm the MOPACs various routes to market are all compliant with the Regulations. 

The MOPAC Scheme of Delegation and Consent provides the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime (“DMPC”) has delegated authority to approve: 

• Business cases for revenue or capital expenditure of £500,000 and above (paragraph 4.8); and 

• All requests to go out to tender for contracts of £500,000 or above, or where there is a particular public interest (paragraph 4.13). 

• Paragraph 7.23 of the Scheme provides that the Director of Commercial Services has consent for the approval of the award of all contracts, with the exception of those called in through the agreed call in procedure.  Paragraph 4.14 of the Scheme provides the DMPC reserves the right to call in any MPS proposal to award a contract for £500,000 or above. 

5.  Commercial Issues  

This contract is for the provision of an emergency boarding up service to comply with the PACE requirement to secure properties where forced entry has been made and the owner/occupier is not on scene. 

For the re-procurement action the MPS has already tested an existing Crown Commercial Services framework but no expressions of interest were received. The MPS will run a supplier engagement session to generate more interest in this proposed opportunity.   

The MPS propose a open tender procurement exercise to establish a new national 4-year framework with a value between £6.4m and £9m. This will allow other police forces to collaborate and call-off contracts from this framework. 

The MPS contract call off over a upto 4 year term from the framework is estimated at £2.2m, which equates to £550k p.a. 

The MPS estimate that the re-tender exercise may not achieve cashable savings as the current prices are likely to increase due to the current challenging economic environment. 

6. GDPR and Data Privacy  

MOPAC will adhere to the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018 and ensure that any organisations who are commissioned to do work with or on behalf of MOPAC are fully compliant with the policy and understand their GDPR responsibilities.   

The MPS assure that this project does not use personally identifiable data of members of the public, so there are no GDPR issues to be considered. 

7.   Equality Comments  

MOPAC is required to comply with the public sector equality duty set out in section 149(1) of the Equality Act 2010. This requires MOPAC to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations by reference to people with protected characteristics. The protected characteristics are: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation. 

The MPS assure that equality and diversity implications have been considered with no issues identified or foreseen, and that as the tender process will be driven by the MPS the tender documentation will include Social Value requirements, Sustainability & Environment Assessment to tackle economic inequality, ethical sourcing and sustainability to contribute to the London Anchor Institutions’ Charter.  

8.   Background/supporting papers 

• Appendix 1 MPS Report - National Framework Agreement for the Provision of Emergency Boarding Up and Locksmith Services – SS3/17/2