DoJ - NICTS - Office Cleaning for Northern Ireland Courts and Tribunal Service

Contracts

• DoJ - NICTS - Office Cleaning for Northern Ireland Courts and Tribunal Service · Construction & Procurement Delivery (CPD) cannot publish the name of the appointed contractor for security reasons., Withheld for security reasons

  Signed

  22 Dec 2017

  Value

  £5,200,000

  Status

  active

  • Change Contract was originally awarded for up to four years (2+2), and was due to expire on 31st March 2022. Was modified in February 2021 for an additional year (1/4/22 - 31/3/23). This modification is to maintain service provision for an additional year (1/4/23 - 31/3/24)., Need for modification brought about by circumstances which a diligent contracting authority/entity could not foresee: 2022-23 modification: The pandemic has had a detrimental impact on staff resources within NICTS, and other users, to enable them to successfully manage a new procurement exercise at that time as NICTS staff's priority was to ensure business continuity and as such key individuals would be unable to participate in the procurement process (development of requirements, tender evaluation etc.). To initiate a procurement process in this climate, when there is so much uncertainty regarding availability of key staff was considered a potential risk. It would also be difficult for NICTS to define and scope their current/future requirements due to the ever changing way that courts business is currently being delivered and whether their current cleaning model would need to be retained if and when Covid related measures could be scaled back. It would also be beneficial to NICTS that we ensure that the current service provider can build on the changes that have been implemented over the last year and NICTS would have concerns regarding the impact that changing service providers at this time could have in meeting the current standards expected by NICTS staff and court users. 2023-24 modification: Whilst still not fully resourced to manage a large number of procurements NICTS had intended to initiate the procurement and have a new contract awarded and in place ready to commence 1 April 2023. Unfortunately they are unable to clearly specify their requirements for the next 5/7 years as the current cleaning model has a number of Covid related roles specifically tasked to focus on touch points throughout the buildings. As no decision has been made at this time by the NICS regarding the reduction/removal of the covid mitigations (removal of social distancing or return to work) there would be a number of challenges that we would encounter if NICTS were to proceed to tender at this time. Those include:- 1. What model NICTS would specify i.e. the current Covid model or the pre Covid model. There are currently 22 covid specific related posts out of 57 posts in total on the contract. 2. If NICTS specified the current covid model there would be the risk that value for money would not be achieved as we would more than likely incur higher rates if companies built in the cost of redundancies of those staff we deemed to longer require. 3. Companies may be put off from bidding due to the uncertainty of NICTS requirements so value for money would not be properly tested/achieved. 4. There are current supply chain issues and inflated cost issues that might impact on the roll out of a programme for washroom fitting replacements if NICTS were to change service provider at this time. This might make start-up costs in the current climate higher. 5. Having a further 1 year with the existing service provider would enable NICTS to manage the reduction of the staffing resources on a phased approach. This would reduce the impact on costs if it was decided that they would cover the one off redundancy payment if we decided to remove all the covid resources at a certain period of time.

Dispute resolution & review bodies

• The UK does not currently have any such bodies with responsibilities for appeal /mediation procedures.Review body N/A