Request for Information for Facial Recognition Solution

Background:<br/>The NCA leads the UK’s fight to cut serious and organised crime, protecting the public by targeting and pursuing those criminals who pose the greatest risk to the UK.<br/><br/>The purpose of this document is to engage suppliers with a summary of the National Crime Agency’s (NCA) requirements for its upcoming Facial Recognition (FR) solution. This is not a bidding opportunity and does not represent a contractual commitment but is a means by which industry can provide information. <br/><br/>We are seeking feedback on the initial requirements and delivery strategy. The services will be fully detailed in tender documentation. Any future procurement activity shall be conducted in accordance with the relevant Procurement Legislation in place at that point in time.<br/><br/>A decision by any prospective provider not to submit a response to this document will not prejudice future engagements.<br/><br/>Please Note:<br/>This Request for Information (RFI) is an information gathering exercise, no further discussions with industry are planned at this stage.<br/><br/>The closing date for responses to this RFI 11/10/2024 at 1200.<br/><br/>Should the NCA take this procurement forward, it will be issued via the NCA’s ATAMIS e-tendering solution, suppliers must be registered with this platform in order to take part in any future procurement exercise. Please reach out to the point of contact if you require registration instructions.<br/><br/>The NCA is currently exploring a new FR solution requirement. The requirement includes both purchase of the FR solution, its installation, relevant updates and required support and maintenance at a national, enterprise level.<br/><br/>This RFI aims to achieve the following outcomes:<br/>1. Inform and align the NCA requirement with industry capability and processes.<br/>2. To inform a commercial strategy that enables the implementation of an enduring solution.<br/>3. To explore Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) costings and associated maintenance throughout the contract for the Facial Recognition solution.<br/><br/>Scope of Requirements:<br/>To meet the NCA’s requirements, suppliers must be able to provide upon mobilisation of any contract one of the following solutions: <br/>1. Have a proven ability of delivering 1:1, 1:Many, Many:Many Retrospective Facial Recognition (RFR) from still probe images and video footage, singularly and in bulk.<br/>2. Have a proven ability of delivering RFR capability from challenging imagery/video footage – such as poor quality, off-angle and/or non-frontal.<br/>3. Have an FR algorithm that has been rigorously tested through NIST and/or NPL, with proven successful results in relation to 1:1, 1:Many, accuracy and non-demographic bias.<br/>4. Be able to be used in conjunction, as an automated process, with a large image gallery/data-set held on an NCA-owned IT platform.<br/>5. Have the ability to be used in conjunction with Officer Initiated Facial Recognition (OIFR) and Live Facial Recognition (LFR) technologies.<br/>6. Be deployable onto an NCA-owned IT platform which has no direct internet access. <br/>7. Be supported or updated as appropriate. <br/>8. Have the potential to export and ingest identified videos/images so NCA can data share with partners. <br/><br/>Volumes:<br/>The project is scoped to deliver a FR capability to the NCA. It is anticipated that the FR solution will be used in conjunction with a large image data-set. This data-set will be increased and its scope widened over time – as such any FR solution will need to be able to adapt to any increase in data etc. <br/><br/>There will be a requirement for scalability in terms of licence holders as our FR capability matures.<br/><br/>Data, Security and Vetting Requirements:<br/>Should the NCA take this procurement forward, suppliers will have to meet NCA Supply Chain Security, Security Vetting and Data Security Requirements. These details will be included in any future tender but the following mandatory security requirements will apply as a minimum:<br/><br/>- Cyber Essentials Plus (CE+) and Cyber Essentials Requirements for IT infrastructure 2020. Where certification for Cyber Essentials Plus is not held but certification for ISO 27001 is held and is accredited by the United Kingdom Accreditation Services (UKAS) the scope must include the controls listed within Cyber Essentials Plus;<br/>- HMG Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) 2018;<br/>- Off-Shoring – Cabinet Office Guidance 2020; and<br/>- Adherence to National Security Vetting<br/><br/>Responding to the RFI:<br/>Responses to this RFI will be reviewed by subject matter experts from different functional areas within the NCA.<br/><br/>Any details provided in response to this RFI will be used for information purposes only and will not be used to determine the potential Suppliers who will be invited to bid, should the NCA proceed to tender.<br/><br/>The results and analysis of this RFI shall not constitute any form of pre-qualification exercise.<br/><br/>Nothing in this RFI, or any other engagements with Industry prior to a formal procurement process, shall be construed as a representation as to the NCA’s ultimate decision in relation to the future requirement.<br/><br/>To respond to this RFI please complete this excel spreadsheet making sure to answer all questions and return via the Atamis Portal.<br/><br/>Any supplier costs incurred in responding to, or engaging with, this RFI will not be reimbursed. Additional information: We would like to invite interested parties to register their interest via the following Atamis Supplier Portal registration link https://nca-atamis.my.site.com/ProSpend__eSourcing_Community_Registration?locale=uk.<br/><br/>Any issues relating to portal registration should be directed to Atamis Support at support@atamis.co.uk<br/><br/>To ensure there is sufficient capability and interest from the market in order to run any procurement, participants will need to complete in full and return the Request for Information questionnaire to the abovementioned Sourcing portal by:<br/>17:00 Friday 23rd August 2024.<br/><br/>Please highlight any areas/barriers to bidding that you would like to discuss.<br/><br/>The NCA encourage only those suppliers who can meet the stated requirements to register their interest and to engage with this process to aid in determining how the NCA moves forward with this requirement.<br/><br/>Suppliers may submit any questions they have through the clarification section of the portal before the deadline for return of Request for Information questionnaires. The NCA cannot confirm that clarification questions will be responded to within a specific timeframe.<br/><br/>The option to engage with individual suppliers following the submission of competed RFI does not amount to a commitment to engage and any such engagement will be at the NCA’s sole discretion.