Consolidated IT Contract renewals FY21/22

This report requests approval to renew selected existing IT service contracts. There are no immediate alternative arrangements feasible or possible so contracts will be awarded via existing compliant routes including direct awards from frameworks or through third party resellers. The maximum approval requested is £35.153m p.a. This will be funded from existing approved budgets.

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to:

1. Approve the renewal or extension of existing IT contracts detailed in the 2021/22 consolidated contract summary in Part 2 up to a total limit of £35,153,000 per year, fully funded within the MOPAC approved DP Budget.

2. Approve delegated authority for the Director of Commercial Services to complete each of the contracts during 2021/22 within the limits detailed in the contract summary, including additional 20% tolerance upwards where costs are driven by officer numbers.

1. Introduction and background

1.1. In Digital Policing there are a number of supplier contracts where for the following reasons:

• exclusive rights reasons, such as the supplier exclusively owning the intellectual property rights in the software and therefore no other supplier is able to provide it;

• technical reasons, such as there is simply no other supplier who provides the same of equivalent product which meets the MPS’s requirements;

• economic/technical/compatibility reasons, such as infrastructure and Police operations cannot be re-engineered or re-designed to accommodate different software/product without incurring disproportionate service disruption and/or unacceptable costs;

no alternative solution exists which meets the MPS requirements (single tender actions).

1.2. Many suppliers are unwilling to enter into long term arrangements or negotiate on price until the end of the contract. As a result, Digital Policing and Commercial Services often have limited time between the contract end and the submission deadlines for the appropriate Governance meetings (PIB / IAM) to secure best value for money. This then makes it difficult to complete negotiations and progress decisions through the governance process in the time required, so a consolidated renewal process has been agreed for the last few years to streamline the governance around these renewals where there are no alternative routes.

2. Issues for consideration

2.1. The requested consolidated approval would be subject to the renewals being for terms of no longer than three years, being contained within a total of £35.153m p.a. and where there is no material change to the existing provision.

3. Financial Comments

3.1. The cost implications of this request are fully funded within the MOPAC approved DP budget.

3.2. This consolidated list of selected IT contracts assumes the impact of inflation will be no more than £1.7m (5%) fully funded in the Digital Policing budget.

3.3. The actual future costs and constituents of the consolidated contract renewals will vary depending on price changes but also increases in officer numbers and the evolution of the technical estate, as services are retired, evolved and new services brought into operation.

4. Legal Comments

4.1. The Mayor’s Officer for Policing Crime 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 will be procured in accordance with the Regulations.

4.2. 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 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

4.3. Paragraph 4.14 of the Scheme provides that the DMPC reserves the right to call in any proposal to award a contract valued at £500,000 or above.

4.4. Paragraph 7.23 of the Scheme provides that the Director of Strategic Procurement has consent to approve all proposals to award of all contracts with the exception of those called in through the agreed call in procedure.

4.5. Contracts shall be procured or extended in accordance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. Either via existing compliant routes to market (direct call-off from an existing framework or value added reseller agreements) or in accordance with Regulation 32 or 72 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015.

4.6. Regulation 32(2)(b) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 permits a negotiated procedure without prior advertisement where the works, supplies or services can be supplied only by a particular supplier only where:

• Competition is absent for technical reasons, and

• The protection of exclusive rights, including intellectual property rights.

4.7. Regulation 72(1)(b) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 permits existing contracts to be extended by up to 50% of the original contract value for technical and inconvenience, duplication of costs reasons.

4.8. The provisions of Regulation 32 and 72 are strictly applied and Digital Policing shall ensure the appropriate justification for application of these Regulations is evidenced. Where required, Digital Policing and Commercial seek legal advice to ensure compliance.

4.9. The contract renewals as set out within this report are compliant with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and are in order with the law and MOPAC governance.

5. Commercial Issues

5.1. There are procurement options that are not recommended as they will not provide any additional value and would be both resource intensive and time consuming including:

• Conduct individual OJEU tender exercises. As there is an absence of competition for the requested renewals, undertaking OJEU tender exercises would not generate any valid responses, and

• Mini Competition via Crown Commercial Service or other framework agreement. Although using a framework represents a quicker route to market than an OJEU process, there is still an absence of competition due to technical reasons.

5.2. There are existing routes to market available for some of these the contracts (but not all), for example via direct award under an existing framework and third party re-seller contracts whereby the existing supplier is already named on the framework or can be procured by the re-seller. There are good value for money benefits as well as the benefit of legal compliance of using these existing routes to market.

5.3. Wherever possible MPS shall seek to procure via these compliant existing routes to market.

5.4. Alternatively and where justified, procurements shall be conducted in accordance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015.

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 Section 57 of 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 Information Assurance and Information Rights units within MPS will be consulted at all stages to ensure the renewals meet its compliance requirements.

7. Equality Comments

7.1. As this is an extension of existing services this work does not change any aspects relating to equality or diversity.

8. Background/supporting papers

8.1. Report.