National Breast Screening System (NBSS) Contract Extension

National Breast Screening Service (NBSS) is a national system critical to the provision of Breast Screening services in England, Wales and IoM and provides the facility for making bookings, onwards referrals where needed and is the start of the complete patient journey where treatment may be needed. NBSS technology is 15-20 years old and has been developed during this time using VB6 as the basis for programming and development. NBSS is extremely complex due to the volume of (VB6) development that has accumulated over the 15+ years that the system has been in place. It is utilised by over 70 different Breast Screening Offices meaning that, for example, the process of rolling out new releases is time consuming and administratively complex. This new contract award (which is a restating of the previous contract) will provide service continuity while the future long term strategy for NBSS continues to be developed and subsequently implemented. It is justified under Section 41 (1) (a) and paragraph 6 (b) of Schedule 5 of the Procurement Act 2023 on the basis that there are no reasonable alternatives for the provision of this service.