UKVI Secure Testing Services (STS) (LITUK Test)

Description

The Home Office plans to procure secure testing services for persons to apply for settlement and/or apply for UK citizenship through the delivery of Life in the UK Testing (LitUK) within the UK. Lot 1: The Secretary of State for the Home Department, acting through UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI), is the Authority reviewing options for a potential future procurement of Secure Testing Services (STS) for the Life in the UK Test (LiTUK). UKVI is a department within the Home Office and has Customers in the UK who include but are not limited to: • those seeking to extend permissions to work or study in the UK; • those seeking to extend permissions to stay or settle with family; • those seeking to evidence their rights as European Economic Area nationals and family members: and • those progressing from earlier immigration permissions to British nationality. A knowledge of English has been a requirement for naturalisation as a British citizen for many years. Since 2005, Customers have also been required to show an understanding of life in the UK. The LitUK test is designed to test an individual’s knowledge of life in the UK (based on content of ‘Life in the United Kingdom; a guide for new residents’ handbook). The test is taken as part of an application for settlement in the UK or naturalisation as a British citizen. LitUK is currently a computer based multiple choice test containing 24 questions, taken under secure conditions. For the year 1st July 2021 – 30th June 2022 approximately 200,000 tests were taken across the test centre network. This soft market testing exercise is to seek valuable input from the market to understand supplier / market appetite, capacity and capability, along with an understanding of potential risks and opportunities. We are seeking input from the market to establish the most attractive way of packaging and scoping a future procurement for Life in the UK Test that supports both current services and their future transformation. A key ambition of this soft market engagement is to test the feasibility of potential procurement options and the markets capacity, capability, and maturity to not only deliver the services as they are currently, but to transform these services by maximising use of digital solutions to manage remote and secure online UK tests (Remote Proctoring), whilst maintaining the security, integrity and Customer satisfaction of using these services. The Home Office’s intention is to launch a competition to find new provider. Indicative timescales are of competition launch in early 2023, these dates are indicative only, and may be subject to change. Following the publication of this PIN, there will be a Supplier Event held in order to engage with prospective bidders and provide further information, and to afford prospective bidders an opportunity to ask questions. Additional information: Prospective bidders are invited to express an interest in the provision of services by e- mailing the project at the address given at section I.1. of this notice. The Authority uses an eSourcing toolkit to enable its sourcing activities to be conducted over the internet. Further documentation will be made available for unrestricted and full direct access, free of charge via the eSourcing portal,