PCD 1419 Provision of Temporary Alarms for Vulnerable Witnesses

PCD 1419 Provision of Temporary Alarms for Vulnerable Witnesses

Executive Summary:  

This paper seeks approval for the provision of a service for the installation and monitoring of temporary alarms for vulnerable people and witnesses. The service will be delivered by the award of a call-off contract from the Greater Manchester Police (GMP) national framework for this function. The proposed contract term is for upto 4 years and has a contract value of upto £4,800,000. The cost will be contained within the existing MPS budget. 

Recommendation:  

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to:   

1. To approve the award of a new call-off contract from the existing GMP national police Framework Agreement for Temporary Alarms, for the installation of temporary alarm systems at vulnerable people’s / witnesses home address locations.  

2. The recommended contract term is 48 months. This will be an initial 2 year call off contract with the option to extend by up to 2 years (1 + 1). The cost of the initial 2 year period is £2.4m, with a total contract value of £4.8m over a 48 month contract term 

3. Introduction and background  

4. The existing contract for the supply of this service expires at the end of March 2023.  

5. Issues for consideration 

6. The approval of this proposal is necessary for the MPS to ensure the safety, security and protection of vulnerable people/witnesses at their home address locations.  As part of post incident measures, these alarms are also used to protect officers and family members of the MPS where these officers have had their identity entered into the public domain during high profile operations. 

7. In 2021-22 the MPS introduced the TecSAFE app which was a more suitable device for some of the previous users – those at a lower risk. For the more serious offences the temporary alarm is still more suitable due to the audio and recording capability. 

8. The use of audio as part of the alarm monitoring system has provided corroborating evidence in domestic violence cases.  Use of audio can improve charges of individuals and ultimately prosecutions at court, and to reduce repeat offending by removing offenders from the victim.  

9. The Met currently use the same temporary alarm system via previous GMP led national Framework. The temporary alarm system is a national police approved bespoke specification purchased by all UK police forces.  

10. Financial Comments  

11. The estimated annual contract value is £1,200,000 which over the upto 4 year contract term is £4,800,000.  The MPS assure that the contract costs will be met from within existing budgets. 

12. Legal Comments 

13. 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 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 exceeds this threshold.   

14. The MPS Directorate of Legal Services assure that the proposed contract award is compliant with the Regulations. 

15. 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. 

16. Commercial Issues  

17. Greater Manchester Police (GMP) carried out a procurement and awarded a national framework for the provision of temporary alarms.  AVR Group Ltd is the sole supplier of the temporary alarm system on the GMP Framework Agreement.  

18. There are currently no other existing suitable Framework Agreements available to the MPS that covers the scope of services that the requirement demands.  

19. This MPS procurement is by way of a call-off from the GMP national framework – a compliant route to market.   The contract term will be an initial 2 year call off contract with the option to extend by up to 2 years (1 + 1).  

20. GDPR and Data Privacy  

21. 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.   

22. 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. 

23. Equality Comments  

24. 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.

25. The MPS assure that there are considered to be no negative equality or diversity implications arising from this process.  Greater Manchester Police have specified that the successful supplier is required to pay all direct employees and relevant contractors, aged 18 or over, an hourly rate equal to or higher than the Living Wage for the full duration of this contract. During the tendering process, suppliers were also requested to submit a copy of their equal opportunities policies in order to demonstrate their commitment to applying the principles of equality and non-discrimination in their organisation. 

26. Background/supporting papers 

27. Appendix 1 MPS Report - Award of a new call-off contract from a Greater Manchester Police Framework to install temporary alarms at vulnerable people’s / witnesses home address location