Official UK procurement notice
NPS Operations, Maintenance and Modernisation Services
Authority: H M REVENUE & CUSTOMS·Consortium: 2 public authorities
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionThe contract is for business application support and maintenance services for HMRC's National Insurance and PAYE System (NPS). The contract includes options to provide business application development and enhancement services and NPS solution modernisation services. The intent of the modernisation service is to disaggregate the NPS solution into a number of components in preparation for going to market in future. The contract will have a duration of 5 years.
CPV: Application service providers
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedLot #1HMRC has awarded a contract to Accenture plc to provide Business Application Support…Awarded
HMRC has awarded a contract to Accenture plc to provide Business Application Support and Maintenance (BASM) services for HMRC's National Insurance and PAYE System (NPS) ("New Contract"). Prior to this Accenture was the incumbent service provider to HMRC for these services (and other business applications, which are part of other replacement contracts). This expires in June 2022 ("Prime Contract"). The equivalent services under the Prime Contract shall terminate when the New Contract takes full effect.
The services under the New Contract are: Business Application Support and Maintenance (BASM) services; and optional business application development services, system integration services; strategy, architecture and feasibility analysis services related to NPS, which HMRC can use on a call off basis. The term of the New Contract is 5 years.
NPS is part of HMRC and UK economy Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) collecting 40% of revenues into HMT with nearly 40,000 users in HMRC and DWP. It has hugely complex processing engines, which are critical to calculate tax, as well as the administration of devolved powers at a subnational level between Scotland, Wales and the UK. This is a large, multifaceted service developed over time with complicated integration and interdependencies to other services within HMRC and external parties such as DWP and NS&I.
In order to make the services suitable for competition in future and reduce vendor lock-in, the New Contract includes modernisation services which will deliver an NPS Disaggregation Programme. This programme of work will disaggregate the NPS solution into 6 components to provide more open and independently maintainable business focused services.
The New Contract value is £70,393,068. Payments are supported by service levels and service credits and are structured as a combination of fixed price support and maintenance charges, rate-card based charges for development projects and delivery milestone payments for disaggregation services (including retention clauses).
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Procedure method
- Award procedure without prior publication of a call for competition
- Legal basis
- CELEX · 32014L0024 Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (Directive 2014/24/EU)
- Procurement category
- Services
- Notice status
- Awarded without competition
- Procurement threshold
- Unspecified in notice
- Regulatory regime
- Standard
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Direct award (no call for competition)
- GPA / WTO covered
- Yes (GPA)
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 24 Mar 2022, 16:29 GMT
- Last source update
- 23 Dec 2024, 16:27 GMT
- FTS notice number
2024/S 000-041469- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-03260fFind a Tender
- Why no open competition
The works, supplies or services can be provided only by a particular economic operator due to absence of competition for technical reasons
- Published justification
The services required by HMRC consist of the provision of Business Application Support and Maintenance (BASM) services and optional business application development and enhancement services and NPS solution modernisation services for HMRC's National Insurance and PAYE System (NPS). NPS is classified as Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) collecting 40% of revenues into HMT. The award of the New Contract to Accenture ensures that the support of NPS continues to be delivered safely and without interruption whilst the solution is in its current technical state. During the Contract term, the intent is to disaggregate the NPS solution into a number of components in preparation for going to market in future.
Due to the technical risk, age and intricate interdependencies of the NPS solution, the support services could currently only be provided by Accenture, until the solution is disaggregated and modernised. Delivering the disaggregation of the solution will require a considerable level of in-depth knowledge and experience of the solution, which only Accenture have because of their 20 years of supporting the services.
There is a significant risk of disruption to critical services, which would lead to a non-recoverable consequence for customers and revenue-stream for the UK Economy. The resulting contract enables HMRC to deliver on its strategic priorities to protect live services and deliver contractual flexibility. In parallel, HMRC will be able to work with Accenture to prepare the disaggregated components of NPS to go to market.
This is an award of a contract via the negotiated procedure without prior publication under Regulation 32 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. HMRC's view, having taken advice, is that reliance on Regulation 32 is justified because services being procured under and for the term of the New Contract can only be provided by Accenture because competition is absent for technical reasons.
Accordingly, HMRC concluded that for technical reasons HMRC was procuring services under the New Contract, which only Accenture could provide and for which there was no reasonable alternative
Notice history
1 event · 2 releases on Find a Tender- Buyer details updated23 Dec 2024, 16:27 GMT
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Published awards, contracts and bid statistics, not a forecast| Awarded to | Value | Date | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accenture UK Limited | £70,393,068 † | — | Awarded |
| Accenture UK Limited | £105,589,602 † | — | Awarded |
Contracts
Contract 008053-2022-1 · Accenture UK Limited
- Signed
- 23 Feb 2022
- Value
- £70,393,068
- Status
- active
NPS Operations, Maintenance and Modernisation Services · Accenture UK Limited
- Signed
- 23 Feb 2022
- Value
- £105,589,602
- Status
- active
- Change The contract was modified by £35.2m in line with PCR 2015. This is effective from 29th November 2024. There has been no change to the contract scope and no change to the terms of the contract., Need for additional works, services or supplies by the original contractor/concessionaire: Regs 72 1 b "72. - (1) Contracts and framework agreements may be modified without a new procurement procedure in accordance with this Part in any of the following cases: (b) for additional works, services or supplies by the original contractor that have become necessary and were not included in the initial procurement, where a change of contractor- There has been a significant increase in the project work which was not envisaged and catered for at the time of the direct award. This will allow the continued provision of critical NPS services, support to major transformational projects and the continuation of the disaggregation programme. (i) cannot be made for economic or technical reasons such as requirements of interchangeability or interoperability with existing equipment, services or installations procured under the initial procurement, and A change of supplier is not feasible for technical reasons, as NPS has extremely high levels of technical and functional complexity. Accenture have managed these services for many years and have the in-depth knowledge of the HMRC NPS applications and business services and a change of supplier at this stage of the contract would put key services at serious risk. (ii) would cause significant inconvenience or substantial duplication of costs for the contracting authority, There would be a significant increase in costs if a new supplier provided the service which would include major delays to programmes.
Bid statistics published by the authority
| Bids | SME | VCSE | Valid bid range |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1bids | — | — | — |
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
2 public bodies on the noticeDispute resolution & review bodies
- HMRCReview body
Bidders & participating suppliers
2 commercial parties on the noticeOfficial documents & specifications
Official links; attachments are not copiedNo document links were published on the notice.