Command and Control System - Refinement, Delivery and Maintenance Services

Single Suppliers Intellectual Property Exclusive Rights; Single Suppliers Technical Reasons; Additional Repeat Extension Partial Replacement; Urgency

Interim Contract Justification: Paragraphs 13 and 14 of PA23:

The Contracting Authority's existing legacy Command and Control system is provided by Unisys under a contract expiring in October 2029. In 2018/2019, the Contracting Authority contracted with Leidos Innovations UK Limited (the Supplier) to deliver a replacement Command and Control System. A new Interim Contract is to be awarded to the Supplier to complete the delivery of the replacement System and ensure continuity of service following expiry of the Unisys contract.

Extreme urgency exists as a consequence of complexities and delay in completing transformation to a new system; the Contracting Authority is unable to reprocure and implement a new contract in time to ensure continuity of this critical capability after October 2029. The Contracting Authority considers:

• that it did not have reasonable means available to it, from an economic, operational and commercial point of view, to avoid the urgency that has arisen.
• that the circumstances giving rise to urgency were not solely attributable to the Contracting Authority and could not have been foreseen by the Contracting Authority.

The root cause lies in the underestimation, by the parties at the time of contract award in 2018/2019, of the unprecedented complexity of delivering a system of this nature; this was compounded by the impact of the Covid pandemic on the early stages of the Contract.

Sub-contracts Justification: Schedule 5, Paragraph 5 of PA23:

The Sub-contractors hold the intellectual property rights, source-code rights and associated proprietary rights necessary to provide supported product maintenance, defect correction, updates, patches, supported releases and related development services. The Sub-contractors also have the specialist knowledge of the Contracting Authority's specific system architecture and business logic, which cannot be replicated or substituted by an alternative provider. The Contracting Authority currently considers that only those Sub-contractors are able to provide these services and that there are no reasonable alternatives.

Future Procurement - Successor Managed Service Provider

A Preliminary Engagement Notice has been issued: MPS Command and Control 'Run' Service Support - Notice identifier: 2026/S 000-012206, and early market testing has taken place. Further market engagement for the SMSP contract is anticipated to commence in December 2026.

The Contracting Authority shall conduct a separate competitive procurement for the SMSP as a replacement to the Interim Contract, thereby ensuring that the ongoing operational run services are subject to full market competition.

The Contracting Authority shall assess which provisions of the PA23 may apply in relation to the novation of the Sub-contracts to any SMSP, including but not limited to paragraph 5 (intellectual property or other exclusive rights), paragraph 6 (absence of competition for technical reasons) or paragraph 7 (additional or repeat goods, services or works) of Schedule 5 of the Procurement Act 2023.