PCD 1702 NPoCC Mercury Platform Contract Award

This paper seeks approval to award the contract for the support and maintenance of the Mercury platform. This software is used by the National Policing Co-ordination Centre (NPoCC) to track police skills and capabilities across the country in order to support the effective coordination of police mutual aid requests in meeting demand during large scale events, special operations, and national crises. The proposed contract value is for upto £2,000,000 over a potential 5 year period, with an initial 3 year term and two 12-month optional extensions. The cost will be funded from within the NPoCC budget.   

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to:   

1. Approve the award of a three year contract (1+1+1) plus two optional 12-months extensions for the NPoCC Mercury Platform support (maintenance and development), to Informed Solutions Ltd.  

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

1. Introduction and background  

1. MOPAC approved the re-procurement of this service in May 2022 – see PCD1150.  The existing contract expires on 30 September 2024. 

2. Issues for consideration 

1. The service this contract award relates to is for the maintenance, support and development for the Mercury platform - a national database used to track police skills and capabilities across the country.   

2. The data in the platform is used to manage the coordination of police mutual aid requests between nine police regions (43 home office police forces) plus Police Scotland, PSNI, MDP, CNC, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies to support them in meeting demand during large scale events, special operations, and national crises. 

3. Financial Comments  

1. The estimated contract value is upto £2,000,000 over the potential 5 years of the contract. The NPoCC assure that funding is in place to meet the known support and maintenance costs and to provide headroom for any potential developments. 

4. Legal Comments 

1. 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 £214,904 or above shall be procured in accordance with the Regulations.  This report confirms the value of the proposed contract exceeds this threshold. The award of this contract complies with these Regulations.  

2. Purchasing through a compliantly procured Framework Agreement shall comply with the Regulations where the proposed contract’s scope is within the technical and financial scope of the Framework Agreement and where the ordering processes of the Framework Agreement have been followed. The report confirms the above are met.  

3. Paragraph 4.14 of the Scheme provides that the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime (“DMPC”) reserves the right to call in a proposal to award a contract valued at £500,000 or above. 

5. Commercial Issues  

1. The existing contract expires on 30 September 2024.  The original contract expired in March 2022 and under delegated authority the MPS approved a 12-month extension to March 2024  due to the platform transferring to a cloud-based arrangement. Under their delegation the MPS awarded a 6-month contract to 30 September 2024 in order to provide the time required to carry out this re-procurement. 

2. The services to be provided are support, maintenance and software development. 

3. The re-tender for this service was carried out under the Crown Commercial Services Technology Services 2 (RM6100) framework.  NPoCC recommend the award of contract to the best scoring bidder – further detail is set out in the restricted part of this paper. 

4. NPoCC assure that the tender required bidders to state how the contract would contribute to delivering Social Value. With regards to Responsible Procurement and London Anchor Institution Charter objectives, the successful bidder commits to: 

• Supportive of the MPS’s ambition to deliver social value and sustainability; 

• Sign-up to the prompt payment code upon contract award. 

• Create employment opportunities in line with the London Anchor Institutions’ Charter, adding 50 new FTE roles in the next 12 months, including 4 relating to this specific contract. Also, the Supplier adheres to the Equal Opportunities Policy (aligned to the 2010 Equality Act) to recruit new talent. 

• Deliver quarterly digital training to students from under-represented groups seeking higher-level apprenticeships, through a digital skills partnership with The Prince’s Trust. One apprentice each year will be recruited under this contract. 

• Deliver three skills development and training sessions to under-represented communities through the contract in partnership with AWS through its re/Start programme and including CodeAtt, a non-profit teaching life empowerment and industry skills to at-risk youth and prison leavers. 

• Procure 30% of goods and services from local micro/small business/VCSEs, prioritizing local suppliers to reach a target of 70% of supply chain located in the same area as the contract site. 

• Reinvest 1% of the contract value in community integration and wellbeing activities, and to report on progress on an annual basis. 

6. 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 GDPR responsibilities.   

2. NPoCC assure that the programme does not use personally identifiable data of members of the public, so there are no GDPR issues to be considered. 

7. 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. The NPoCC assure that the business case has undergone an initial Equality screening. Due regard has been taken to ensure compliance with the Equality Act in particular the Public Sector Equality Duty, and that real consideration has been taken to assess Equality impact caused by the proposed business case. As a result, no negative impact has been identified to any individual and/or group safeguarded by a protected characteristic and to those who are not negating the requirement to document any mitigation. 

8. Background/supporting papers 

1. Appendix 1 MPS Report - Approval to Award Contract for Support, Maintenance and Development for the Mercury platform used by National Police Coordination Centre (NPoCC)