Official UK procurement notice
Prisoner Integrated Communications Service (PICS) – Preliminary Market Engagement
Authority: Ministry of Justice (Central government)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionThe Prisoner Integrated Communications Service (PICS) is to replace the current Prisoner Telephony Service (PTS) currently implemented across public prisons in England and Wales.
The current PTS involves use of what are widely referred to as PIN phones - pay-phone devices, which are operated with a Personal Identification Number (PIN) linked to a specified prisoner’s account (instead of cash or a phonecard). A prisoner can only make calls to limited nominated numbers which are pre-vetted. This includes family, friends, legal representatives and the Samaritans.
This service is currently provided to approximately 70,000 prisoners, through over 60,000 in-cell phones and 5,000 wing phones, across 109 public prisons in England and Wales. The service is critical for prisoners and prison staff as it contributes to wellbeing, rehabilitation, and supports discipline by enabling prisoners to maintain contact with key people such as friends, family and support services.
The replacement PICS will provide prisoners in England and Wales with strictly monitored digital communication channels (voice, messaging & potentially in-cell video at a later date) via digital devices such as laptops or tablets (currently Launchpad laptops) to securely contact family and friends, legal contacts, prison officers and external organisations to support their overall wellbeing and rehabilitation.
MoJ is in the process of defining its design for the future PICS and is seeking supplier insights and feedback for potential enhancement options that could be included in the proposed solution through preliminary market engagement.
CPV: Communication land-line rental · IP telephone services · Mobile telephones · Pay phone provider services · Pre-paid phone card provider services · Short Message Service (SMS) services · Telecommunications cable and equipment · Telecommunications network · Telecommunications system
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Ministry of Justice buys Telecommunications cable and equipment (CPV 3252), and who usually turns up
Ministry of Justice’s published record next to the market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are left out: they draw different bid counts. Whole-market view: Telecommunications cable and equipment (CPV 3252) →
How the contest usually goes
Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.
i
How often small and medium firms win.
Share of awards where the winner’s size is known.
The counts under this question show how many awards have a known supplier size.
Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.
i
How often local firms win similar work.
Winners with a registered address in the delivery region, out of awards with a known address.
Local means the winner is registered in the region where that award was delivered.
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered in the region where that award was delivered.
i
How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.
Middle value in days from the bid deadline to the award date, on competitions that published both.
Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.
Half of these awards have an award date within 56 days of the bid deadline.
i
How often work is awarded with no recorded rival.
Direct awards and tenders where every published lot count shows one bid.
Both shares are minimums: some awards have no bid count.
Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.
Direct awards or one recorded bid are common here. Check the route before spending time on a bid.
How many bids did past lots attract?
i
How many bids past lots received.
Each colour is a bid-count range. Only competed lots with a published count are included.
Past bids do not predict this tender.
1 bid7% / 16%
2–357% / 40%
4–623% / 27%
7+14% / 17%
How did awards compare with estimates?
i
Where winning prices landed against estimates.
Each colour shows awards below, close to or above the published estimate, one lot at a time.
Past prices are a guide, not a bid price.
Below estimate56% / 60%
Within ±2%30% / 29%
Above estimate15% / 11%
Assess each lot i
What past awards tell you about each lot.
See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.
No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.
i
What past awards tell you about each lot.
See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.
No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.
Open a lot for its forecast, this buyer’s previous supplier and possible competitors, from published award history, not a bid list
Lot #1CPV 3241Published estimate£302m
This lot is listed as CPV 3241. The table above uses the notice category.
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How many bids this lot may attract.
The forecast uses similar past competitions. The bar shows either that forecast or past bid counts; the line below says which.
Each lot shows its own forecast based on its own category; forecasts for different lots of the same notice are not comparative. The bar shows 112 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid16%
2–340%
4–627%
7+17%
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Where the award price may land.
The forecast uses similar awards and the buyer’s estimate. The band covers the middle half of likely prices.
No comparable awards for this lot yet.
A statistical guide from past awards, not a price to bid.
Who has supplied this buyer on similar work? i
Who has done similar work for this buyer.
Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.
A past supplier may not bid again.
i
Who has done similar work for this buyer.
Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.
A past supplier may not bid again.
No earlier contract of this buyer matches this lot on the published record.
Who could compete for this lot? i
Who could compete for this lot?
Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.
None is confirmed as a bidder.
i
Who could compete for this lot?
Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.
None is confirmed as a bidder.
Candidate suppliers for this notice have not been worked out yet, so this is not a verdict that nobody fits.
About this data
- Source. Official UK public procurement notices (Find a Tender), reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. New notices arrive through the day; the figures are rebuilt nightly.
- Two views, kept apart. The authority’s own track record and the wider market for the same kind of work sit side by side and are never mixed. Where the local picture is too thin, a figure widens to a broader market and says which one it used.
- Forecasts are labelled. The price forecast and its range, possible competitors and the earlier-work matches are our estimates from past awards: not published facts, not win chances and not price advice. Official notices do not say who is bidding.
- Every figure shows what it rests on. Not every notice publishes a bid count, a value or a delivery region, so each figure carries the number of records behind it, and one built on few records is marked as such. The on a figure explains it; the counting rules are in the methodology. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Procurement category
- Services
- Notice status
- Planned procurement
- Procurement threshold
- Above threshold (FTS publication)
- Regulatory regime
- Standard
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Competitive procedure
- GPA / WTO covered
- Unspecified in notice
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 16 Apr 2025, 16:13 BST
- Last source update
- 16 Apr 2025, 16:13 BST
- Authority reference
TBC- FTS notice number
2025/S 000-015657- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-050449Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
16 Apr 2025 → 31 Jan 2029 · 4 dates- Planning notice published16 Apr 2025, 16:13 BST
- Today25 Oct 2026
- Tender notice expectedin 37 days30 Nov 2026, 23:59 GMT
- Market engagementin 37 days30 Nov 2026, 23:59 GMT
MoJ hosted an early market engagement event on the 28 February 2023. In November 2023 MoJ informed suppliers that had expressed an interest in the opportunity and attended the event that the prisoner telephony project would be paused to enable a further period of discovery in anticipation of hosting the next market engagement event at the end of Q1 or early Q2 2024 which was delayed by the general election.
MoJ issued a further PIN in August 2024 to inform the market of the MoJ’s intention to re-engage with suppliers through a market engagement webinar to be held on 19 September 2024 and to publish a Request For Information (RFI) seeking suppliers’ input into a series of questions aimed at developing the potential PTR solution and testing market appetite.
MoJ is seeking for organisations to respond to a further Request for Information (RFI) in order to inform the future design for the Prisoner Integrated Communications Service and give organisations the ability to submit their thoughts on various aspects of the potential future requirements. Suppliers interesting in responding to the RFI are asked to submit their responses to this RFI by the 22nd of May 2025.
MoJ may choose to engage further with suppliers throughout the pre procurement process that may include;
- a request for information (RFI)
- webinar(s)
- one to one supplier meetings
- supplier presentations
- solution demonstrations
- workshops
Organisations should respond to this Notice by registering on the MoJ eSourcing Portal at ministryofjusticecommercial.bravosolution.co.uk ↗ and, within the eSourcing Portal, register for event ‘ Prisoner Integrated Communication Service'.
Once registered and your account has been activated, please email [email protected] confirming your interest in participating in the market engagement by responding to the RFI so you can be granted access to view, share and submit information relating to this and any future market engagement.
- Contract starts31 Jan 2029
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published16 Apr 2025, 16:13 BSTUK2
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Pipeline notice- Awards (0)
- No award published
- Contracts (0)
- No contract published
- Bid statistics
- No aggregate bid statistics published
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
Official documents & specifications (1)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender