MoJ issues multi-million pound data centre tender

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has issued a tender for a three-year contract for data centre services, including cross-site connectivity, an interface with other IT suppliers to the department and an ‘ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) service wrap’.

The ministry estimates that the contract will be worth between £12 million and £24 million over its lifetime and will see a strategic partner deliver secure data centre services up to government security standard IL5 from at least two data centres. The contract will initially run for three years, with options to extend it for a further two years, according to a notice in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU).

As set out in the MoJ’s Prior Information Notice (PIN) and accompanying Prospectus for the Future IT Sourcing Programme (FITS), the department’s current major ICT contracts were negotiated prior to the creation of the ministry. As a result, the contracts are broadly aligned to business units within the MoJ, for example NOMS (National Offender Management Service), HMCTS (Her Majesty’s Courts & Tribunals Service) and headquarters functions, rather than supporting economic, standard and integrated services across the MoJ. These legacy contracts are due to expire in the next few years. The FITS Programme has been established to implement a ‘service tower’ (or separate contracts) operating model for the delivery of ICT services across the MoJ and to procure replacement contracts that align with, and support, this model.

•Wiltshire, Hampshire, Dorset & Devon and Somerset fire and rescue services – all members of the Networked Fire Control Services Partnership (NFCSP) in the south – have agreed an eight-year partnership contract for a new communication and command and control centre.

The contract with Capita will improve the resilience of all four fire and rescue services and enhance existing control centre functionality, while also delivering cost savings.

Dave Curry, chair of the NFCSP strategic board that serves a population in excess of five million people, said: “Because all four fire and rescue services will have the same Capita technology in their control centres, it will give us far greater resilience. If one service is under pressure for whatever reason, one of the others will be able to provide full support.

This integrated system will allow us to work together even more effectively than we do at the moment, and that can only be good for public and firefighter safety.

“This is very much ‘one system, many opportunities’. We will have the ability to work together when we need to, we will be able to train together and many of our processes will be simplified.

“The fire and rescue service nationally has been challenged to face the future and find better ways of working – we are confident that this project will achieve the efficiencies and economies that government is demanding of us.”

George Godliman, managing director of Capita’s communications and control solutions business, said: “This system isn’t just confined to the four walls of the control centre – it’s about providing technology that fire and rescue workers rely upon when responding to calls. Information flowing back into the control centre is just as important as information received by fire crews on their way to incidents.”