Judicial services

Tender description

This notice launches the competition for the provision of a Transcription Management Service (TMS). The Ministry of Justice (MoJ), as the Contracting Authority, expects to put in place a contract for the provision of transcription management service (TMS). The TMS will be required to manage transcript requests and performance of the transcription services suppliers on a framework agreement which will be subject to a separate procurement. The MoJ is required to record hearings which take place in Crown, County and Family Courts, the High Court, Court of Appeal and Administrative Court. Audio recordings provide a true and accurate record of proceedings and are used, when required, to produce transcripts as an official court record. The record is used as evidence in, or grounds for, an appeal to a higher court although it can have many other uses across the divisions of the MoJ, for example, court judgments are published where it is deemed to be in the public interest. Where precedent is set these form a part of the case law of England and Wales. It is anticipated that the contract for TMS will be with a single supplier and deliver a range of outsourced business processes structured as an outsourced management service. This will be a new service and will be expected to provide a range of activities including request management, security and information assurance, quality assurance, billing, central storage of recordings and transcripts, archive retention management, booking of on-site resources (stenographers and other court reporters) real-time transcription services), third party access request management, performance management. The contracting authorities within the scope of this notice are: — the Ministry of Justice — all executive agencies of the Ministry of Justice including but not limited to the Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service, National Offender Management Service, the Legal Aid Agency, the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority and the Office of the Public Guardian — all non-departmental public bodies of the Ministry of Justice, including the Youth Justice Board, the Parole Board, the Judicial Appointments Commission, the Sentencing Council and Independent Monitoring Boards The anticipated term of the contract will be four years plus an additional one year (at the discretion of the MoJ) plus up to an additional 1 year, also at the discretion of the MoJ. Further details of the services will be set out in the procurement documents.