Prisoner Telephony Service

Description

The purpose of this Prior Information Notice (PIN) is to inform the market of potential opportunities for the provision of future prisoner telephony services and the MoJ's intention to engage with potential suppliers through a market engagement event and request for information (RFI). His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) is an executive agency of MOJ. The current outsourced Prisoner Telephony Service (PTS) enables prisoners to call family and friends, legal contacts, and external organisations such as the Samaritans. The service is critical for prisoners and prison staff. The design for the future provision of prisoner telephony services is currently being developed to replace the current outsourced service. MOJ anticipates procuring services to deliver its prisoner telephony service. Further details can be found below in section II.2.4 Description of the procurement. The value in II.1.5 below is an estimated value and is indicative only. The value, based on a potential contract period of ten years plus optional extension periods is subject to change depending on the number, duration and type of contracts required to deliver the new service. Lot 1: The current prisoner telephony service involves use of what are widely referred to as PIN phones - pay-phone devices, which are operated with a Personal Identification Number (PIN) linked to a specified prisoner’s account (instead of cash or a phonecard). A prisoner can only make calls to limited nominated numbers which are pre-vetted. This includes family, friends and legal representatives. This service is currently provided to approximately 70,000 prisoners, through over 60,000 in-cell phones and 5,000 wing phones, across 109 public prisons in England and Wales. The service is critical for prisoners and prison staff as it contributes to wellbeing, rehabilitation, and supports discipline. It enables prisoners to maintain contact with key people such as friends, family and support services. As stated in II.1.4 above, MoJ is in the process of defining its design for a future prisoner telephony service, before securing internal, Cabinet Office and Treasury approvals to re-procure a replacement service to the current service provided by BT which has been in place for several years. As set out above, the purpose of this Prior Information Notice (PIN) is to inform the market of prospective opportunities for the provision of future prisoner telephony services and the MoJ's intention to engage with potential suppliers through a market engagement event and request for information (RFI). In the first instance organisations should respond to this PIN by registering on the MoJ eSourcing Portal at https://ministryofjusticecommercial.bravosolution.co.uk/ and, within the eSourcing Portal, register for event ‘ Prisoner Communication Strategy – Prisoner Telephony – Market Engagement'. Once registered and your account has been activated, please email prisonercommunication@justice.gov.uk confirming your interest in attending the market engagement event detailing the name of your organisation, so you can be granted access to enable your organisation to view, share and submit information relating to the market engagement event. When you have been granted access MoJ will message you directly via the Sourcing Portal with further information regarding the market engagement Event. Information for prospective suppliers will be provided within the eSourcing Portal, including full details of the market engagement event, the RFI, and a suite of material relevant to the exercise. There is also a messaging feature for any questions to MoJ and for receiving any further updates. The MoJ is seeking for organisations to respond to a Request for Information (RFI) in order to inform the future design for prisoner telephony services and give organisations the ability to submit their thoughts on various aspects of the overall requirement. Organisations who wish to submit an RFI should register on the MoJ eSourcing Portal for a copy of the RFI and respond by the submission deadline of no later than three weeks after the virtual market engagement event. The MoJ will be holding a market engagement event on 16 September (TBC). The event will run for approximately one and a half hours. The event will be conducted on Microsoft Teams. At a future date all organisations responding to this PIN will be invited to attend the market engagement event(s). We will issue an invitation to all interested parties, confirming the date and timings of the event(s). In order to express your interest in attending any future market engagement event, please address an e-mail to prisonercommunication@justice.gov.uk The subject of your e-mail should be: Future Prisoner Telephony PIN Query. Organisations will not be prejudiced by any response to this PIN, or failure to respond. This PIN does not formally signify the beginning of a procurement and does not constitute a commitment by the MoJ to undertake any market engagements events or procurement exercise.