Prisoner Telephony Services – Bridging Agreement

Key Details

Description

This direct award procurement is a concession contract to continue the existing prisoner telephony service for the prisons in England and Wales which are run by HM Prison and Probation Service. The Bridging Agreement is drafted as an extension/contract change notice to the current PTS contract. The prisoner telephony service (PTS) is currently provided by British Telecommunications Limited (company number 01800000) (BT) in the prisons in England and Wales which are run by HM Prison and Probation Service and has been for several years. The ability for prisoners to maintain relationships with family and friends is critical as it contributes to prisoners’ wellbeing, order and discipline, rehabilitation, and a reduction in the likelihood of reoffending. The main communication channel in use currently is voice calls, provided by the PTS. PTS is a critical service which allows prisoners to make phone calls to approved contact numbers using a unique personal identification number (PIN). The PTS scope includes use of in-cell phones, wing phones, mobile PIN phones and staff to cell phones. This direct award, known as the Bridging Agreement, will bridge the period between 1 June 2027 (the current contract expires on 31 May 2027) up to 30 November 2031, which is the period required to enable governing, procuring, mobilising, testing and transitioning to the replacement next generation communications service called the Prisoner Integrated Communications Service (PICS). Under the Bridging Agreement, BT will continue to provide the PTS on substantially the same terms as the current PTS contract together with exit services to transition to PICS. PTS is procured as a concession contract as it is predominately funded from the income generated by prisoners who purchase phone credit from BT. The contracting authority (MOJ) is relying on the single supplier direct award justifications under section 41 and schedule 5 paragraphs 5 and/or 6 of the Procurement Act 2023 in the alternative: -paragraph 5 (a)due to a particular supplier having intellectual property rights or other exclusive rights, only that supplier can supply the goods, services or works required, and (b)there are no reasonable alternatives to those goods, services or works. and in the alternative: -paragraph 6 (a)due to an absence of competition for technical reasons, only a particular supplier can supply the goods, services or works required, and (b)there are no reasonable alternatives to those goods, services or works. The explanations for why the justifications apply are as follows: Intellectual property rights - paragraph 5. This justification applies because only BT has the intellectual property rights needed to be able to provide the services. This is a consequence of the intellectual property clauses in the current PTS contract and the Bridging Agreement. No reasonable alternatives In the absence of the intellectual property rights that would be needed for an alternative supplier to be able to provide the services, the only reasonable potential alternative would be for MOJ to procure another supplier/s to develop a replacement solution that meets MOJ’s requirements – whether building from scratch or configuring a commercial-off-the-shelf solution. Any replacement supplier/s would then need time for mobilising, testing and transitioning to that replacement solution after it had been appropriately governed and procured by MOJ. There is not sufficient time to do all these activities which would be necessary to transition to a replacement solution by the date the services are required, which is 1 June 2027. This is evidenced by the number of years it is taking to replace the PTS and transition to the next generation replacement service, PICS. PICS is being designed for use in the prisons in England and Wales which are run by HM Prisons and Probation Service and will be rolled out incrementally over time to eventually end use of the PTS service. MOJ is approximately two years into the PICS project. The direct award for the Bridging Agreement is for the period required to facilitate MOJ procuring, governing, testing, mobilising and transitioning from PTS to PICS. Therefore, there are no reasonable alternatives. The second justification is absence of competition for technical reasons - paragraph 6 There is an absence of competition for technical reasons which are based on the same arguments as for the intellectual property rights justification under paragraph 5, which are stated above. The PTS is bespoke and an alternative supplier would not be able to walk in and take over the services on the date from which they are required due to the intellectual property rights of BT. Instead, there would have to be an appropriately governed procurement/s and then the selected supplier/s would have to mobilise, test and then transition to that service and as stated in the justification under paragraph 5 above, this is not possible to do by the time the services are required on 1 June 2027. No reasonable alternatives The same justifications, stated above, for why there are no reasonable alternatives for paragraph 5 intellectual property rights, apply to the justification for paragraph 6. Therefore, there are no reasonable alternatives. For background information, MOJ has conducted several forms of preliminary market engagement for PICS to replace the Bridging Agreement. Following that market engagement, MOJ has been developing plans for the future. MOJ anticipates that the contracts for prisoner telephony services to support PICS will be let through relevant frameworks agreements such as RM6377 Network Services 4, RM6098 Technology Products & Associated Services (TePAS) 2 and/or TePAS 3 operated by the Government Commercial Agency (GCA); Procurements to commence after February 2027. Prospective suppliers are encouraged to engage with GCA (gca.gov.uk) and/or on-framework suppliers to participate in framework opportunities. To obtain information from the preliminary market engagement which has occurred already and to register for updates for PICS, please contact vvn.cmo@justice.gov.uk Note: With effect on 25 June 2026, BT registered a change at Companies House to reflect its re-registration from a plc. Whilst the company’s name has changed, the legal entity remains the same with the same company number.