Prisoner Telephony Services – Bridging Agreement

The proposed contract, known as the Bridging Agreement, is to continue the existing prisoner telephony service (PTS) with British Telecommunications plc (BT) procured under a concession contract dated 30 August 2022 (the Current PTS Contract) which continued on similar terms the ‘PIN phone’ service which has been in operation for several years. Under the Bridging Agreement, BT will provide substantially the same services on substantially the same terms as the Current PTS Contract together with exit services. The Bridging Agreement will be drafted as an extension/contract change notice to the Current PTS Contract. It will bridge the period for which the PTS is required, which is between 1 June 2027 (the Current PTS Contract expires 31 May 2027) up to 30 November 2031. This is the period required to enable governing, procuring, mobilising, testing and transitioning to the next generation communications service, called the Prisoner Integrated Communications Service (PICS). The Bridging Agreement is permitted to be procured as a direct award concession contract under section 41 and schedule 5 paragraphs 5 and 6 of the Procurement Act 2023 in the alternative: 5 (a)due to a particular supplier having intellectual property rights or other exclusive rights, only that supplier can supply the goods, services or works required, and (b)there are no reasonable alternatives to those goods, services or works and in the alternative: 6 (a)due to an absence of competition for technical reasons, only a particular supplier can supply the goods, services or works required, and(b)there are no reasonable alternatives to those goods, services or works. A transparency notice is being published separately for the Bridging Agreement. For background information: The Authority has conducted several forms of preliminary market engagement for the PICS contracts which will replace the Bridging Agreement. Following that market engagement, the Authority has been developing plans for the replacement solution. The Authority intends to provide details of its procurement plans for PICS via pipeline notice(s) and further market engagement as the PICS project progresses through the Authority's governance. The procurement for the first PICS contract (which will replace the Bridging Agreement) is estimated to commence in 2027. To obtain information from the preliminary market engagement which has occurred already and to register for updates for PICS, please contact vvn.cmo@justice.gov.uk