PCD 1518 MOPAC Research Services Contract 2024-28

PCD 1518 MOPAC Research Services Contract 2024-28

MOPAC are seeking approval to award Opinion Research Services (ORS) the contract for the provision of research requirements for MOPAC, via the Research Services Contract. The contract will last for a period of three financial years with an option to extend for a further twelve months if required. The maximum contract value will be £5,461,310.43 across four years. This constitutes £4,032,819 for the initial three years (as per the quote provided by ORS as part of their bid), plus a projected £1,428,491.43 for the fourth (+1) year. Note the fourth year projected costs are the same as the third year quoted costs.  

The winning bid is £1,061,310.43 above our originally-projected budget of £4.4m for the Research Services Contract (PCD 1237).  

The research contract will facilitate the delivery of Police and Crime Plan objectives, by providing a robust evidence base for improving public perceptions and victim satisfaction (via the Public Attitude Survey and User Satisfaction Survey). Utilising an external company enables MOPAC to achieve a fully independent assessment of Londoners’ voice.  

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to:   

1. Approve award of the MOPAC Research Services contract to Opinion Research Services, on the basis of: 

1. a contract period of 3 years, with the option to extend for a further 12 months if required. 

2. a total value across four years of up to £5,461,310.43 (£4,032,819 for the initial three years plus the projected £1,428,491.43 for the fourth (+1) year). 

3. Note the further budget requirement of £1,061,310.43 (beyond the £4.4m approved via PCD 1237). 

4. Delegate authority to award the fourth year (+1) to the Director of Strategy in consultation with the CFO. 

PART I - NON-CONFIDENTIAL FACTS AND ADVICE TO THE DMPC 

1. Introduction and background  

1. This paper concerns the contract for the provision of research services for MOPAC. The current research contract expires in March 2024 and therefore a new Research Services Contract needs to be awarded.  

1.2 The contract will facilitate core Police and Crime Plan objectives by providing a robust evidence base for improving public perceptions of policing and crime, and victim satisfaction.  

1.3 The research projects covered by the contract include: 

• User Satisfaction Survey (USS); 

• Public Attitude Survey (PAS); 

• Telephone Digital Investigation Unit Survey (TDIU); 

• Online Survey Portal; and 

• Other ad-hoc research. 

1.4 A mini competition has been carried out from the Crown Commercial Services Research Marketplace (CCS) (RM6126) framework, supported by the TfL procurement team.  

2. Issues for consideration 

1. This paper seeks the authority to award the Research Services contract to Opinion Research Services. The contract will cover a period of three financial years, with the option to extend for a further twelve months if required. Total contract value across the four years will be up to £5,461,310.43. The contract start date will be 1st January 2024 (in order to allow sufficient set up time for data collection to begin 1st April 2024).  

2. The contract will be reviewed prior to the end of the third year, to decide whether to invoke the +1 element. The decision to invoke the +1 element of the contract, including budget approval and contract award, will be subject to further approval. 

3. The surveys and other research products contained within the proposed contract are core to delivery of the PCP, the MPS’s A New Met For London and therefore also the London Policing Board. Many of measures to assess delivery success of the PCP are taken from the Public Attitude Survey and User Satisfaction Survey, making them crucial products for MOPAC. These are long-standing surveys which have been in use for over a decade, and therefore provide a wealth of historical trend data.  

3. Financial Comments  

1. The total budget requirement for this work totals £5,461,310.43 across four years.  The programme will be funded from within the MOPAC budget. The winning bid is £1,061,310.43 above the originally-projected budget of £4.4m.  

2. A budget of £4.4m was approved in Spring 2022 (PCD 1237), with costs projected using the actual contract costs at the time with a percentage added to account for inflation. Since that point, inflation has increased at a faster rate than predicted. 

3. It should be noted that the approved £4.4m was divided equally between years 1-4 (£1.1m per year). The forecasted budget of £5,461,310.43 includes an assumption of a budget of £1,428,491.43 for year four. Note that we did not ask bidders for costs for year 4, and as such the third-year costs have been used to project year four costs, and as such to calculate total contract value. 

4. The further budget requirement of £1,061,310.43 has been accommodated within the Medium-Term Financial Plan/service budget. If this proves unaffordable, compensatory savings will be identified within the Directorate, and any changes will be discussed with the CFO. 

5. The MOPAC Finance team have used Creditsafe to conduct a financial check of ORS, with the risk score coming out as very low risk and therefore have no concerns. 

4. Legal Comments  

4.1 Paragraph 4.13 of the MOPAC Scheme of Delegation and Consent provides that the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime (DMPC) has delegated authority to approve all requests to go out to tender for contracts of £500,000 or above.   

4.2 MOPAC’s general functions are set out in the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 (the 2011 Act). Section 3(6) of the 2011 Act provides that MOPAC must “secure the maintenance of the metropolitan police force and secure that the metropolitan police force is efficient and effective.”. This is a broad power and the commissioning of research services to review public perception and victim satisfaction would enable the efficiency and effectiveness of the police service. Under Schedule 3, paragraph 7 MOPAC has wide incidental powers to “do anything which is calculated to facilitate, or is conducive or incidental to, the exercise of the functions of the Office.” Paragraph 7(2) (a) provides that this includes entering into contracts and other agreements. 

4.3 Section 143 (1) (b) of the Anti-Social Behaviour Crime and Policing Act 2014 provides a power for MOPAC, as a local policing body, to provide or commission services “intended by the local policing body to help victims or witnesses of, or other persons affected by, offences and anti-social behaviour.”. The provision of the research services would also be consistent with this power. 

4.4 TfL commercial and TfL legal were consulted during the procurement process on the draft contract terms. 

5. Commercial Issues  

5.1 A mini competition has been carried out from the Crown Commercial Services Research Marketplace (CCS) (RM6126) framework, supported by the TfL procurement team. 

5.2 Approval for the route to market was obtained from Procurement, Contracts and Grants Oversight Board (PCGOB) on 21st June 2022. MOPAC Board approval was given on 29th June 2022. Due to a variety of resourcing issues, the 2019-2023 contract was extended for an additional year (January 2023, PCD 1293). This procurement exercise for the 2024-2028 contract has been conducted in parallel to the extension.  

5.3 The procurement exercise has taken account of the GLA Responsible Procurement Policy, assessing ethical sourcing in the tender submissions.  

5.4 TFL have run this procurement exercise on behalf of MOPAC as part of the collaborative group arrangements, therefore MOPAC are subject to the TFL process. We seek DMPC approval to award the research services contract to ORS subject to the Contract Award Report (CAR) being approved by TFL at GLAAM. 

6. Public Health Approach  

6.1 A key strategic aim of London’s Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) is to increase feelings of safety – recognising that London is one of the safest Cities in the world. The key method for measuring perceptions is through surveys, including the Public Attitude Survey. This proposal therefore directly supports the VRU’s aims and the public health approach adopted to support them. This piece of work has been supported by the Violence Reduction Unit.   

7. GDPR and Data Privacy  

1. 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 UK GDPR responsibilities.   

8. Equality Comments  

1. 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. 

2. Crime disproportionately impacts areas with high deprivation and in general these are non-White areas. A greater granularity of understanding of what is going on at borough level, through the User Satisfaction Survey, TDIU Survey, and Public Attitude Survey, should allow for us and partners to make better informed decisions and have a greater impact on crime levels affecting these communities.