Home Office undertakes market sounding exercise
The Home Office is consulting with suppliers on the best approach to take if and when the procurement for the National ID card programme gets underway.
Having already published a Prior Information Notice in the Official Journal of the European Union, this next step assess the market reaction to the how the government will tender for the various elements of the scheme and ensure an effective and efficient process. It is looking for ideas and innovative approaches to the procurement.
The Home Office has published a presentation and questionnaire on it’s dedicated Identity card website - http://www.identitycards.gov.uk. The questionnaire asks for comments on all aspects of the ID card scheme. It calls for responses on a variety of areas including the feasibility of the project timescales, suggested length of contracts, integration issues with legacy systems and the biometric system.
The presentation outlines the government’s current thinking for the procurement strategy. The scheme will be delivered as part of a “mixed economy sourcing approach making the best possible use of market capability – via a small number of coherent packages.” The government will use “output/outcome specifications as far as possible” and “expect suppliers to be accountable for end to end performance of their service delivery.”
The presentation also gives details of the new Executive Agency that will take over the work of the UK Passport Service, its functions and the services that will likely be procured.
These include the Application, Enrolment and Maintenance Services (AEM) and National Identity Register, Biometrics and Technology Services. It is estimated that there will be around 10 million enrolments every 12-months and the NIR will hold around 100 million registration records that are likely to be renewed every ten years.
The new agency will look to award contracts to manageable number of selected suppliers based on best value, with payments linked to milestones successfully achieved during implementation.
To ensure minimal risk to the project, “rigorous” testing of the biometric system will begin as soon as possible after the Pre-Qualification phase. According to the timelines published, the Pre-Qualification phase will take 12 weeks and process to refine and test the solution and select the suppliers will take a further eight months.
Royal Asset for the ID cards bill is expected in the first quarter 2006 and the official OJEU tender notice will be published sometime thereafter.
Responses to the sounding are expected by 9 November.
Related Links
Procurement Strategy Market Sounding Presentation (1.02MB – PDF)
Procurement Strategy Market Sounding Questionnaire (784KB – Word)
