Call Routing Agreement Two (CRA2) - Contract Award

This decision seeks approval to award a contract to (a) replace the Call Routing Agreement that entered termination assistance on 31 March 2021 and (b) replace selected services within the Network Tower Agreement (NTA), which entered termination assistance on 31 March 2022.

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to approve awarding of contract to BT for replacement of CRA and associated services for a period of 3 years (2+1) at an estimated revenue cost of £6.7m for first year, £6.5m for second year and £6.0m for third year to a maximum total of £27.2m fully funded from the MOPAC approved Digital Policing (DP), Met Ops and Specialist Operations budget. This also includes an estimate of project related work of approx. £8m; these projects will be the subject of future business cases and will follow the appropriate corporate governance.

1. Introduction and background

1.1. MPS is a Category One responder under Civil Contingencies Act 2004. The Act places a responsibility on all Category One Responders to ensure that in the event of an emergency, they are able to continue to deliver, so far as is reasonably practicable, their critical functions.

1.2. The MetCC Voice platform and enterprise voice service helps MPS meet its obligations under this act. It is vital that this mission critical service has appropriate 24/7 service support in place and is correctly maintained, hence the need for CRA2.

1.3. In February 2021 MPS awarded the Pegasus Infrastructure Tower contract (Pegasus) to Capgemini. The whole of the CRA, the voice elements of the Network Tower Agreement (NTA), NTA secure services (sensitive) and several other legacy services were excluded form Pegasus. Along with in-flight voice projects these service will comprise the scope of CRA2.

1.4. The services comprising CRA2 are as follows:

a. Call Routing services comprising:

i. Emergency Call Routing

ii. Call Recording

iii. Administration And Training

iv. Workforce Management

v. Telecom Call Logging Service

b. Voice Services comprising:

i. IP Telephony Voice, Voicemail, Call Recording and Logging.

ii. Contact Centre Platform

iii. Secure IP Telephony

iv. Desktop Telephony Maintenance

v. Legacy Mitel Service

vi. BT Satellite Access Service

vii. End of life Emergency Overrun Circuits Services

viii. BT Redcare & Phone lines

c. Secure Services. These are described in the restricted section of the report.

d. In-flight Voice Projects comprising:

i. MetCC Voice Platform Replacement (DMPC Decision – PCD 860).

ii. Enterprise Voice (Business case in progress)

2. Issues for consideration

2.1. This is not a request for additional funding or budget growth. Revenue costs over 3 years for the award of a new Call Routing Agreement contract to BT will be funded from the MOPAC Approved Digital Policing (DP), Met Ops and Specialist Operations Budget.

2.2. The total cost of the new CRA contract will deliver cashable savings of £137k in 2022/23 and £545k from 2024/25 onwards. These savings will contribute to the delivery of the DP savings target within the DP Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP).

2.3. MOPAC decision PCD 1401 (25 October 2021) gave approval for MPS to commence a negotiated procedure without prior publication with BT. MPS have completed the negotiated procedure and drafted a contract. This paper seeks approval to award that contract, known as CRA2.

2.4. CRA2 will be for a 2 year period with an option for an extension of 1 year, and will commence at the earliest opportunity and no later than 1 July 2022.

2.5. MOPAC decision (PCD 923 dated 01 Feb 2021) gave approval for MPS to enter into a 12 month NTA contract Termination Assistance (TA) period 1 April 2022 up to 31 March 2023 and to uplift the value of CRA TA. NTA voice services will remain in TA until 30 June 2022. On 1 July 2022 these services will transition to CRA2.

2.6. The Call Routing Service delivers incoming 999 calls to MetCC and is part of the UK Critical National Infrastructure.

2.7. Command and Control (C&C) project work will continue under NTA and CRA TA extension seamlessly as services transition from NTA and CRA into CRA2. Therefore no impact on C&C is anticipated as a result of this decision.

3. Financial Comments

3.1. From a DP perspective, the award of the call routing agreement contract to BT will cost £6,272k in 2022/23 with costs reducing in subsequent years to £5,727k by 2024/25. All of these costs will be fully funded within the MOPAC approved DP Budget. There will be an ongoing saving of approx. £545k from 2024/25, which will contribute to the delivery of the savings target within the DP MTFP.

3.2. There are also services outlined in a separate table below, which are funded from non-DP budgets; these amount to approx. £445k per annum in 2022/23 but reduce to £370k from 2023/24 onwards as the CT Holmes service ceases. The CT Holmes and Acorn services sit within Specialist Operations whereas the Satellite service resides within MO3. These revenue service costs are fully funded within their respective business group’s MOPAC approved budget.

3.3. The following table details the impact on Specialist Operations (SO) and MO3 revenue budgets. (see pdf)

4. Legal Comments

4.1. 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 £189,330 or above shall be procured in accordance with the Regulations. This report confirms the value of the proposed contract exceeds this threshold.

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

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

b. All contract exemptions for £100,000 or above (paragraph 4.13).

4.3. Further legal comments, subject to legal privilege, are provided in the restricted section of the report.

5. Commercial Issues

5.1. The procurement objectives are to:

a. Obtain the best value pricing for MetCC Voice Service and Enterprise Voice Service

b. Maintain existing service performance levels

c. Reduce Operational and Commercial risk to the MPS

d. Award a contract that complies with Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (or any replacement regulations)

e. Provide a contract to maintain the operational CRA2 service with greater flexibility to design an appropriate process including opportunities to negotiate and innovate.

5.2. The procurement route used was a Negotiated procedure without prior publication as detailed in The Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (PCR) – Regulation 32.

5.3. The recommended term is 24 months, with an option to extend by a further 12 months. This is the maximum allowed under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 Regulation 32(6) sufficient to complete:

a. the complex transition of the 999 service from legacy to new platforms across three MetCCs without interruption to public service

b. the migration of legacy voice users onto the mission critical voice platform and subsequent decommissioning of all superseded legacy voice platforms.

c. the preparation of a detailed specification and invitation to tender to support a competitive procurement process.

5.4. London’s Anchor Institutions’ Charter is a Mayoral commitment to help London recover from the Pandemic. The provision of the services within this proposal contribute to the London Anchor Institutions’ Charter by enabling a range of technology solutions that will modernise and improve the services MPS use to deliver the Met's mission of keeping London safe. In particular, the solutions will directly underpin its investment in MetCC voice, including 999, future Command and Control systems and modern methods of managing the contact centre workforce, thus continuing employment in London and the wider area for those involved in delivering the services to support the Met in keeping the people of London safe. BT have made commitments to delivering social value, inequality and sustainability across the country: https://www.bt.com/bt-plc/assets/documents/digital-impact-and-sustainability/bt-manifesto.pdf

6. GDPR and Data Privacy

6.1. The MPS is subject to the requirements and conditions placed on it as a 'State' body to comply with the European Convention of Human Rights and the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018. Both legislative requirements place an obligation on the MPS to process personal data fairly and lawfully in order to safeguard the rights and freedoms of individuals.

6.2. Under Article 35 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Sections 57 and 64of the DPA 2018, Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIA) become mandatory for organisations with technologies and processes that are likely to result in a high risk to the rights of the data subjects.

6.3. The project team are engaging with Data Office to ensure that the solution is compliant with legal and policy obligations.

7. Equality Comments

7.1. This business case has undergone an initial equality screening. Due regard has been taken to the Equality Act’s Public Sector Equality Duty. Real consideration has been taken to assess equality impact caused by the proposed business changes. As a result no positive or negative impact has been identified to any individual and/or group safeguarded by a protected characteristic and those who are not.

8. Background/supporting papers

8.1. MOPAC decision PCD 1401 (October 2021) gave approval for MPS to commence a negotiated procedure without prior publication with BT.

8.2. MOPAC decision PCD 923 (February 2021) gave approval for MPS to enter into a 12 month NTA contract Termination Assistance (TA) period 1 April 2022 up to 31 March 2023 and to uplift the value of CRA TA. NTA voice services will remain in TA until 30 June 2022.