The Department for Business and Trade - Digital Partner for Trade and Regulatory Services

Description

Summary of work The Trade and Regulatory Services portfolio in DDaT in the Department for Business and Trade requires a Digital Partner to support capacity and capability gaps in delivering against our portfolio objectives. Where possible we prefer to build blended teams with a partner, complementing our existing skills and knowledge. This requirement will support the key business objectives of the Trade and Regulatory Services portfolio. Teams in this portfolio support the departmental plans and priorities through delivering DDaT services to support businesses and workers to understand, engage and comply with domestic and international regulations, so that they are able to benefit from trade opportunities and domestic business and worker protections. This will include: • Supporting the delivery of digital services in the DDaT Trade and Regulatory Services portfolio. • Providing expertise listed on the Government Digital and Data profession capability framework to deliver on outcomes in support of regulatory portfolio deliverables and support of services. • Providing teams to support delivery at all stages of the product lifecycle (Discovery, Alpha, Beta, Live). DBT works in an Agile and lean manner according to HMG’s Digital Service Standard and we would expect them to be familiar with these criteria of the Standard, and have the experience to participate and provide appropriate evidence to any Service Assessments conducted. We need to deliver both long- and short-term solutions, to meet emerging priorities for the department. At the same time, we need to ensure our existing services are maintained and enhanced to ensure they remain best-in-class. We have a range of services in discovery, alpha and beta phases of development. The supplier will work on a number of different work packages, including new feature development for our services related to sanctions, import and export licensing services, market access, and domestic business regulation. We also require support to conduct Discovery into new requirements related to policy areas such as supply chains and worker protections. In addition, the Digital Partner may explore working on initiatives, beyond the Trade and Regulatory Services Portfolio. DBT’s tech stack is primarily based on Python and the Django framework and hosted on AWS. We also have some other services hosted on Azure based on Microsoft Dynamics and Power Platform. Ideally the Digital Partner could provide teams with expertise in all these technologies, but Python language and Django framework are the main priority. All our services must be designed and built to GDS standards and undertake service assessments where applicable. The Buyer requires the Supplier to have and maintain a Cyber Essentials Plus Certificate. Where the supplied staff will work No specific location (for example they can work remotely) Why the work is being done Purpose The Trade and Regulatory Services portfolio supports businesses and workers to understand, engage and comply with domestic and international regulations, so that they are able to benefit from trade opportunities and domestic business and worker protections. Objectives 1. Share information and data that explain and enable the use of relevant trade and business regulations. For international trade, this includes FTAs, sanctions, tariffs, trade remedies, and controls. For domestic business this includes helping SMEs with regulatory requirements, closing the payment gap from large companies to SMEs, and sharing data on subsidies and regulated professions. 2. Enable the UK to control the import and export of military, dual use and sanctioned goods and services through efficient and robust licensing services. 3. Reduce market access barriers and regulatory hurdles to facilitate international trade and domestic business growth, ensuring UK businesses can navigate and overcome obstacles to success. The business problem We aim to build, incremental improve and support services and products around the following areas for business and trade: 1. Connect people to information and data that explains and enables the use of relevant trade and business regulations. For international trade, this includes FTAs, sanctions, tariffs, trade remedies, and controls. For domestic business this includes helping SMEs with regulatory requirements, closing the payment gap from large companies to SMEs, and sharing data on subsidies and regulated professions. 2. Enable the UK to control the import and export of military, dual use and sanctioned goods and services through efficient and robust licensing services and by providing compliance monitoring capability. 3. Reduce market access barriers, regulatory hurdles and unfair practices to facilitate international trade and domestic business growth, ensuring UK businesses can navigate and overcome obstacles to success. The people who will use the product or service User type: Internal Staff and External Businesses Definition: - DBT staff in the UK and overseas, - exporters, - importers, - domestic businesses, - individuals acting on behalf of a business, - business entities, - intermediaries Any pre-market engagement done The Department for Business and Trade held a Future Commercial Roadmap for Digital Development Contracts on Tuesday 16th July 2024, invitations were sent to all suppliers registered in DOS6 and DSP. If you require a copy of the presentation slides, Q and A and recording please contact CommercialDDaT@BusinessandTrade.gov.uk Work done so far Built the ‘Apply for a Standard Individual Export Licence’ service – the first service to be closed down on the SPIRE legacy export licensing system, and the most significant in terms of volume and complexity. Completed the rebuild of DBT’s legacy import licensing service, removing a dependency on a third party supplier and providing the basis for a more usable and CDDO-compliant service. Designed and built two sanctions related services from scratch, to enable DBT to fulfil its new responsibilities in the guidance, monitoring, compliance and enforcement of trade sanctions. Reduced duplication and unnecessary overheads by retiring two services that no longer provided value for money. These were the ‘Resilience Tool’ - designed to collate and visualise data on critical supply chains, and ‘Trade with the UK’ which enabled overseas companies to view tariffs and regulations that apply when bringing goods into the UK. In both cases, use of the services had declined since they were first launched, and we were able to meet the user needs through other means. Enhanced the Digital Market Access Service through improvements in-line with ISTR’s strategic pillars to reduce and remove barriers to export. The focus has been on: revising the publishing processes to ensure businesses can access up-to-date information on GOV.UK via the ‘check an international trade barrier’ service; improving the quality and accuracy of barrier information contributed by all users throughout the barrier resolution lifecycle; improving the quality of actionable management information and reporting workflows; and improving the user experience on frequently used tasks. Conducted service reviews of the Domestic Business Services (ex-BEIS) which have been highly effective, providing critical insights for their successful integration into the portfolio. By identifying key gaps, issues, and opportunities, we have a clearer roadmap for enhancing performance, user experience, and technical reliability. The reviews are also helping to shape the future delivery models for these services. Supported the Trade Remedies Authority (TRA) to explore delivery options for the Trade Remedies Service (TRS), concluding that implementing a new low code solution is the most cost effective option that also provides TRA with greater independence. We are maintaining the current TRS and are supporting TRA in procurement and implementation of the new service, whilst also providing assurance of technical choices and service standards. Which phase the project is in Not applicable Existing team The team in the portfolio as a whole is a mixture of Civil Servants and contractors across the whole range of Government Digital and Data roles. On occasion the successful supplier may be required to work alongside other suppliers given that DBT maintains several contracts and suppliers work in other portfolios, however at this moment in time no supplier other than the incumbent (Deloitte) is involved in the work of the portfolio. Address where the work will be done London – Old Admiralty Building, Admiralty Place, London SW1A 2BL Darlington – Feethams House, Darlington DL1 5AD Edinburgh – Queen Elizabeth House, EH8 8FT Belfast – Erskine House, BT1 4GF Cardiff – Ty William Morgan House, CF10 1XS Birmingham – 23 Stephenson Street, B2 4BJ / Victoria Square House, B2 4AJ Salford – Trinity Bridge House, M3 5EG Working arrangements The supplier staff must work on Department for Business and Trade equipment on a 7.5 hour working day. Expenses must be included in day rates. Remote working is allowed, but Department for Business and Trade would expect the Digital Partner to attend the DBT offices for team meetings, workshops etc. as required. Security and vetting requirements Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) Security and vetting requirements Security Check (SC) More information about the Security requirements: The resources deployed will typically require SC level security clearance that can be shared with DBT for the duration of their work. Occasionally BPSS is suitable. Latest start date 16 December 2024 Expected contract length Contract length: 2 years 0 months 0 days Optional extension: 1 years 0 months 0 days Budget Indicative maximum: £6000000 Indicative minimum: The contract value is not specified by the buyer Further information: This is made up of, up to £4,000,000 ex VAT for the initial term + up to £2,000,000 ex VAT for the optional extension. Contracted out service or supply of resource? Contracted out service: the off-payroll rules do not apply Questions and Clarifications 1. Please could you provide a set of the documents as word documents rather than ODT? We are unable to do this, this is part of how PPG works. Last Updated : <strong>07/10/2024</strong> 2. Could you please confirm whether the Authority would accept a bid proposing the use of nearshore European resources? Are all supplier staff required to hold SC clearance, or does this requirement apply only to staff who would be attending Authority premises? No. All supplier staff working on the requirement must have SC. No offshoring is permitted. Last Updated : <strong>07/10/2024</strong> 3. Can you confirm that the 750-character limit applies per question? Yes. Last Updated : <strong>10/10/2024</strong> 4. In the question, "Demonstrate your experience in working in blended teams and working towards a successful joint outcome.". Can you clarify if blended teams are teams that: have multiple skills/disciplines multi-supplier teams, or mixed teams of consultants and civil servants or a combination of all of these scenarios? This could be a mixture of scenarios where we create teams from different disciplines and skill sets and resourced through different ways such as Managed or Interim Contractors alongside Civil Servants. Last Updated : <strong>10/10/2024</strong> 5. In the question, "Demonstrate experience of developing digital services or staff-facing digital tools to support domestic and international business activity." are the department looking for a single example or to understand a suppliers breadth of experience? This is to help us understand both the depth and breadth of your experience and knowledge within this domain. Last Updated : <strong>10/10/2024</strong> 6. In the question, "Demonstrate experience in the planning and delivery of user-centred, agile projects, following the Government Service Standard and Technology Code of Practice." are the department looking for a single example or to understand a suppliers breadth of experience? This is to understand your experience of delivering on outcomes using agile and user centred thinking aligning with the GDS and technology codes of practices. Last Updated : <strong>10/10/2024</strong> 7. Can you provide examples of functions or features in deployed services which help illustrate why you have chosen Python and Django for web application development? Our chosen technology for bespoke build applications and integrations is Python with the Django framework underpinning most services. For examples on what we have built, please take a look at our Github account https://github.com/uktrade/ Last Updated : <strong>10/10/2024</strong> 8. Are there any specific AWS services or tools that should be utilised (e.g., EC2, S3, RDS) to ensure resilience, availability, and scalability? Our AWS choice for compute is ECS on Fargate with supporting products such as Amazon S3, Cloudfront, ElastiCache and RDS (PostgreSQL) Last Updated : <strong>10/10/2024</strong> 9. Are there any specific APIs or existing systems that the services need to integrate with, especially those related to sanctions, import/export licensing, and market access? Each service will have different integration requirements. A common integration is with the public Companies House API, however there are other API's that we may use from other Government departments that may be needed to fullfil all functionality. Some services may also integrate with internal API's for data processing. Last Updated : <strong>10/10/2024</strong> 10. What are the expected standards or protocols for the APIs (e.g., REST, GraphQL)? We build API's using standard RESTful patterns with JSON representation. GraphQL is not approved query language that is applicable for our services. Last Updated : <strong>10/10/2024</strong> 11. Could you provide more details on the types of data and the specific data engineering, analysis, and science practices required to support services related to trade and regulatory compliance? The nature of the data will be related to UK trade and will therefore conform to common trade standards. Whilst we have an internal data capability who are experts in data analysis, science and engineering, we expect the supplier to be able to supplement our capability within the portfolio, as an example, to build data pipelines from digital services onto our Apache Airflow infrastructure. Last Updated : <strong>10/10/2024</strong> 12. Are there any particular tools or technologies that should be used for these practices? Our standard technology choice for all software engineering is Python with common libraries and packages to support development. You can find examples of the technology and tools we use by visiting our Github account https://github.com/uktrade/. Last Updated : <strong>10/10/2024</strong> 13. Can you provide any strategic documents which outline your ambition around data engineering, data analysis and data science? All our data roles align to the Government Digital and Data capability framework (https://ddat-capability-framework.service.gov.uk/). Our ambition is to make data easily discoverable and available, securely where necessary, to those who need it, and to support people to extract information and derive insights from data so that decisions are made and policies are developed on a sound basis. Last Updated : <strong>10/10/2024</strong> 14. What types of evidence or data are most important for supporting the prioritisation of outcomes, particularly for services related to trade and regulatory compliance? Various data methods and types could be used as examples, we are looking at experience in working with stakeholders and explaining data and how data can be used to show users needs (not wants) and how that data can be used with stakeholders to drive decisions on Prioritisation. Last Updated : <strong>10/10/2024</strong> 15. Are there any specific stakeholders or stakeholder groups that need to be engaged, and what are their roles in the prioritisation process? Key Stakeholders in relation to this question would most likely be Senior Civil Servants, whom we would need to work alongside to deliver on the outcomes required that would be supported by the digital solution we are building. Last Updated : <strong>10/10/2024</strong> 16. Can you confirm if you will accept staff with SC clearance sponsored by other Departments? Many thanks. We can and do accept staff with clearance sponsored by other government departments, this is common across DBT and all we need to do in this instance is process a share request for the individuals clearance to be shared with DBT. We also need BPSS confirmation as per standard process. This would follow the standard SC share process. Last Updated : <strong>10/10/2024</strong> 17. 1 Would the authority please confirm the weightings of technical and price evaluation as there are two differing sections on page 8 of Attachment 1? 2 We presume the "supplier response" text boxes in attachment 3 should be per question? 3 Would the authority please give an indication of expected word count for the technical responses required for stage 2 for planning purposes? 4 Would you please confirm the CQ deadline for stage 2 as this is not indicated in the timelines for competition? 1. The final weightings are on the published opportunity. 2. Yes, its 750 characters per question in Round 1. 3. Around 500 words per question, but this will be finalised when Round 2 is published. 4. It will be a week after publication of Round 2. Last Updated : <strong>10/10/2024</strong> 18. Can you list how regularly work will likely take place on site? We expect Civil Servants to work 2 days a week in the office, more typically a team would get together at least once per 2 week sprint, but this could vary depending on the type of work being undertaken. E.g. Certain research may require the person to work closely with key users. There is also an expectation that the members will be active participants of their professions, which may require attendance to away days, etc. (Normally at least 1 per qtr) Last Updated : <strong>10/10/2024</strong> 19. Please can you provide an indication of the average number of supplier individuals you would expect to have engaged across all projects at any one time? This depends on multiple factors, this could range from 10-30 for example, and this depends on the type of work commissioned under this contract. Last Updated : <strong>10/10/2024</strong> 20. Good afternoon Could you clarify the following question please? Re. nice-to-have question 2 "Demonstrate experience of developing digital services or staff-facing digital tools to support domestic and international business activity." To help us answer the question as accurately as possible, can you please provide more context about you are looking to do? We do not currently have a specific outcome to work on, typically there will be a request to DBT that requires "urgent" demands, such as government changes in department structures, or a new policy that will be implemented that requires us to build or change something within a short timescale or has a milestone that we have to complete by. Last Updated : <strong>10/10/2024</strong> 21. Will you be able to sponsor staff's SC clearance? Yes, we can sponsor new SC clearances for contractors who are joining DBT. Usually, however, such contractors come with an existing SC in place. Last Updated : <strong>10/10/2024</strong> 22. The 'statement of requirements' document states a latest start date of the 16th December 2025, however the 'Provisional procurement timeline' detailed in Attachment 3 Response to Essential and Nice to Have Skills and Experience' states a contract start date of 6th Jan 2025. Can you confirm which is correct? It is expected to be 16th December 2024. Last Updated : <strong>10/10/2024</strong> 23. Given that responses to clarification questions are being distributed by the 10th October, and the submission date is the 16th October, can we request an extension to the deadline to allow enough time to fully consider the responses? This will not be permitted by the Authority. Last Updated : <strong>10/10/2024</strong> 24. Please can you clarify regarding the response limit for the essential and nice-to-have skills and experience questions? Is it 750 characters for EACH of the 8 essential skills and experience questions and 750 characters for EACH of the 4 nice-to-have questions? Or is it 750 characters in total for the essential section and 750 characters in total for the nice-to-have questions? It is 750 Characters for each response to each question. Last Updated : <strong>10/10/2024</strong> 25. Please can you provide an indication of the typical duration of a request for a team/individual (or the approx. min/max durations that you envisage) Typically we would be expecting anything from 30 days upwards to 90 days. But could be less and/or more, depending on outcome required, team size and availability etc. Last Updated : <strong>10/10/2024</strong> 26. Please can you provide the PME slides and Q&A from July? As per the information published, please contact CommercialDDaT@businessandtrade.gov.uk to get a copy of the slides. Last Updated : <strong>10/10/2024</strong> 27. 1. Can you please confirm if diagrams/images are permitted as part of the response. If yes, will the diagrams/images be inclusive or exclusive of the character count for each response? 2. In 'Attachment 3 - Response to Essentials and Nice to have skills and Experience' it states ""Supplier Response to be inserted in the text box below: (max 750 characters including spaces)." Can you please confirm are suppliers required to copy each question and response into this one text box or are suppliers to create separate text boxes to insert their response to each of the questions?" 3. In 'Attachment 3 - Response to Essentials and Nice to have skills and Experience' it states ""Supplier Response to be inserted in the text box below: (max 750 characters including spaces)." Can you please confirm that the 750 character limit applies to the response to each of the questions? For example, the response to Question 1 would have a limit of 750 characters including spaces. Thanks 1. Diagrams and Images will be permitted as part of Round 2 Only. 2. This is a question best directed at CCS on how to use the portal. 3. 750 character limit applies to the response to each of the questions. Last Updated : <strong>10/10/2024</strong> 28. Attachment 3 in the bid pack states that “You should use this template to complete your response to the questions below. Any other template used may not be accepted.”, and the template below this statement list 8 ‘essential’ questions followed by one supplier response box, and a further 4 ‘nice-to-have’ questions followed by one supplier response box. This reads as if two responses are expected. Please confirm if the expectation is actually for 2 x 750 character responses as above, or 8 ‘essential’ plus 4 ‘nice to have’ responses, which are each 750 characters. Each question in Round 1 has a 750 character response limit. Last Updated : <strong>10/10/2024</strong> 29. With regards to Q6 - "Demonstrate how you have balanced competing business, and user needs to ensure value has been delivered." - can you kindly provide and example where there was a need to balance competing business and user needs? As per the service standard - https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/agile-delivery/core-principles-agile we need to focus on user needs, however senior civil servants may have separate and/or conflicting needs to respond to ministers requests. Therefore we needed to balance those needs and gain agreement to move forward. Last Updated : <strong>10/10/2024</strong> 30. With regards to Q8 - "Demonstrate an example of when you have worked with stakeholders to establish evidence led approach that supports the prioritization of outcomes for delivery. " - Can you kindly clarify if you are looking for establishing evidence for requirements or it is to establish evidence approach that allows changes to delivery based on changing policies? We work in an agile manner that requires us to deliver value iteratively and incrementally. This requires us to align with key stakeholders for the priority of the delivery until we have met the expected highlevel outcome. We are looking to see evidence led approach that you have taken to deliver in this manner. Last Updated : <strong>10/10/2024</strong>