RM1043.8-1-DCMS - 104321 STL Registration Scheme: Beta Phase

Description

Pre-market engagement Members of the project team have held high-level, exploratory conversations with four of the suppliers who were shortlisted at Stage 2 of the DOS6 procurement exercise for the Discovery and Alpha contract, all of whom have experience in delivering Beta phases of comparable projects. During these calls the project team enquired about the types of questions that could be asked of bidders to understand the deliverability of the contract in terms of scope and cost. Work done so far - Public call for evidence and consultation, and analysis of responses to each - Discovery and Alpha phase including summary report, Alpha Service Standard Assessment report, design history, architectural decision record & prototypes. A redacted version of the summary report will be shared with shortlisted suppliers, other documents are supplied. - Engagement with devolved administrations carrying out similar activities - Engagement with other government departments developing measures that will impact the short-term let sector - Engagement with PRS Database team including regular attendance at show & tell - Research project to be completed by March 2025, as per above. - Ongoing development of Impact Assessment Which phase the project is in Beta Existing team The core team is: - Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) - Deputy Director of Visitor Economy (part-time) - Service Owner/Deputy SRO - Head of Short Term Tourist Accommodation Policy (100%) - Product Manager & Contract Manager - Senior Policy Advisor (100%) - Business Analyst - Senior Policy Advisor (100%) Supported by teams from across functions within DCMS: - Policy: Policy Lead, Policy Advisor, Project Management Officer - DDaT: Head of Product and Experience, Service Designer, Lead User Researcher, Data Protection Officer - Legal - Economic Analyst - Finance - Commercial Address where the work will be done Suppliers premises/ ad-hoc visitation to customer premises may be required at: Department for Culture, Media and Sport, 100 Parliament Street, London, SW1A 2BQ Working arrangements Mainly remote working. There may be some requirement to visit one of DCMS’ offices for specific work activities such as in-person meetings or Show and Tells. We use Google Meet and/or MS Teams for virtual meetings Provide more information about your security requirements: Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) Latest start date 2025-03-24 Enter the expected contract length: 1 year Extension period: 1 year Special terms and conditions All expenses must be pre-agreed between the parties and must comply with the Cabinet Office (CO) Travel and Subsistence (T&S) Policy. Special terms and conditions All vendors are obliged to provide sufficient guarantees to implement appropriate technical and organisational measures so that the processing meets the requirements of GDPR and ensures the protection of the rights of data subjects. For further information please see the Information Commissioner's Office website https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/data-protection-reform/overview-of-the-gdpr/ Special terms and conditions Subject to any pre-existing rights of third parties and of the Contractor, the Intellectual Property Rights (other than copyright) in all reports, documents and other materials which are generated or acquired by the Contractor (or any of its sub-contractors or agents) (“the Contractor Materials”) in the performance of the Services shall belong to and be vested automatically in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Write the term or acronym: STL Write the term or acronym: DCMS Write the term or acronym: DDaT Are you prepared to show your budget details?: Yes Indicative maximum: £2,000,000 Provide further information: The budget range is £1,700,000-£2,000,000 for Beta. The overall cost will depend on the proposal submitted by the eventual supplier. Confirm if you require a contracted out service or supply of resource Contracted out service: the off-payroll rules do not apply Summary of work DCMS are proposing to build a register of STL properties and are seeking a supplier to provide a multi-disciplinary team to support DCMS deliver a Beta phase of the digital development work. The government consulted in 2023 on the scope and design of the scheme and is required by the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023 (part 12 section 228) to introduce a register of STL properties. Secondary legislation is being prepared by DCMS to enable the scheme to become operational. DCMS undertook a Discovery and Alpha phase of digital development between July and October 2024 to learn more about the needs of service users, identify our riskiest assumptions about the service, and develop and test prototypes with likely users. Following a successful Alpha Service Standard Assessment, DCMS are now seeking a supplier to support with the delivery of the Beta phase. The appointed supplier will be expected to build upon the findings of Discovery and Alpha to incrementally develop, test and improve the service through the Beta phase working to the indicative timeline set out below. Key stakeholders and user groups will need to be engaged throughout the Beta phase including STL providers, booking platforms and local authorities. The supplier will be expected to take an agile delivery approach, working closely with DCMS officials to inform the development of the policy and legislation. The exact number of STL properties that will register using this service is difficult to determine due to the lack of a single, authoritative source of data on STLs in England. However, based on estimates from multiple sources, it is likely that around 300,000 short-term lets in England will need to register once the scheme is fully operational. The number of short-term lets that will register will partly depend on the scope of the scheme, which is to be determined by DCMS. The register will be a digital service, although there will also be an analogue route to registering. Where the supplied staff will work No specific location (for example they can work remotely) Who the organisation using the products or services is DCMS Why the work is being done STLs are typically rooms, homes or other accommodation made available for casual or holiday use, typically advertised through online platforms. STLs bring a range of benefits for homeowners, consumers and the economy. However, there are concerns about inconsistencies within the regulatory framework for the guest accommodation sector: unlike with hotels and B&Bs, it is difficult to monitor compliance with key health and safety regulations by STLs. Concerns have also been raised about the impact of STLs on local housing, and the lack of an authoritative data source on STL activity in England makes it challenging to address these concerns. A call for evidence published in 2022 found that there was widespread support for a registration scheme, and as a result the government introduced regulations in the Levelling up and Regeneration Act 2023 (LURA) that will bring into effect a registration scheme. A consultation was held in 2023 on how the scheme should be designed. Continuing to develop the scheme will meet the requirements of the LURA and will support the Department’s visitor economy objectives for the scheme. These have been agreed with the Tourism Minister and are as follows: - to improve the quality of guest accommodation by promoting existing health and safety regulatory requirements to STL providers; - to increase consumers’ confidence in England’s guest accommodation; - to create a level playing field across the guest accommodation sector and ensure that STLs are held to the same standards as more traditional accommodation such as hotels and B&Bs; and - to collect data on the STL sector to help ensure a balance between STL growth and the availability and cost of housing. The Beta phase follows on from the Discovery and Alpha phase undertaken between July and October 2023. In September 2024, the service was passed against all points of the Service Standard at the Alpha assessment, with further details provided in the assessment report. The business problem you need to solve The following problems need to be solved during the Beta phase in order to support DCMS in meeting the objectives for the scheme: - How to support DCMS to design and build a safe, secure, reliable and accessible register of STLs which includes a digital service for providers of STLs to self-register; - How to further explore the needs and experience of user groups of the service that were identified and researched during the Alpha phase, as well as carrying out research with users who we have yet to engage; - How to design a joined up user experience across different channels, for all of the different scenarios and user journeys that can occur when registering a property as a STL; - How the data collected by the scheme can be safely and securely managed by the service owner and shared with relevant organisations and services to enable them to undertake their duties; - How to iteratively test, refine and scale up the service through the Private and Public Beta phases; - How data can be collected, processed and reported to understand the performance of the service; and - Consider the long-term operational delivery of the service by exploring how the service can be built to be potentially integrated with another service, and/or transferred to another third-party to administer the service. The scope of the Beta phase is provided in the supplementary document, including an indicative delivery timeline and the key tasks the supplier will be expected to undertake. Other projects and procurements relevant to this contract are also noted. First user type: The Discovery and Alpha phase identified a number of key user groups. We engaged with the majority of these during this phase using a variety of methods. Primary users - Those who need to use the service to register a short-term let - STL providers: Someone who lets some or all of their property for a short amount of time on a commercial basis. These can also be split into sub-groups depending on their experience (eg. prospective providers versus experienced providers), the number of short-term lets they own, and whether they self-manage the property or work with a management company. - Management company: Company that manages a short-term let property on behalf of a provider who is their client. Impacted/involved users - Those who are impacted by or involved in the scheme - Local authorities: Administrative government bodies that operate at local level and need to access data on STLs in their area to help with compliance and local service planning. - Booking platforms: Intermediaries offering aggregated available properties on behalf of landlords. Data users - Those who benefit directly from the data - Visit England: The national tourist board for England, responsible for marketing England to domestic and established overseas markets and for improving England’s tourism product. - DCMS and other government departments - DCMS requires better, actionable data on the domestic STLs market. Other government organisations including MHCLG will have an interest in this data Other users - Those who might have an interest in the registration scheme but do not have to use or benefit from the data it collects - Accommodation bookers: Someone booking short-term accommodation, typically for personal recreational use or business trips. - Neighbours and local communities: Particularly someone living in an area with a high density of short-term accommodation.