Prisoner-escort services

Tender description

It is the intention of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) as the Contracting Authority to put in place a 4th generation of the Prison Escort & Custody Services contract(s) (PECS4). PECS represents a critical service that joins up functions across a wide and diverse group of criminal justice stakeholders including the courts, the police, the Youth Custody Service (YCS) and prisons. The existing PECS contract (PECS3) is currently split into 4 geographical lots: Lot 1: South West and South East, Lot 2: London and East of England, Lot 3: East Midlands, Yorkshire and Humberside and North East and Lot 4: North West, West Midlands and Wales. The current contractors are GeoAmey and Serco. The MoJ wishes to engage with the market in order to explore options for contracting with suppliers to deliver PECS4. The MoJ is encouraging expressions of interest from a wide variety of suppliers, including Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) expressing an interest in being part of the supply chain. The service involves the provision of vehicles and escorts for the safe and secure movement of prisoners between police stations, courts and prisons, and the supervision of prisoners whilst in custody in court buildings, awaiting, during and following court hearings. The service will include a requirement to work with the MoJ in support of its reform programmes involving changes to the prison and court estates, and including an expected increase in the use of virtual hearings using video technology, all of which will have an impact on the locations and the volume of movements and distance travelled during the life of the contract. The MoJ will be seeking to explore how the service might be improved through the greater use of technology, fuel and logistics efficiencies, and is keen to discuss commercial arrangements for the optimisation of value for money and risk transfer in delivering an effective service. PECS4 will include services for escorting children and young people as well as adults male and female prisoners. The services for children and young people is a distinct service from the adult and youth escorts with different service requirements such as; non-cellular vehicles, training and certification requirements for staff, higher staff to young person ratios, and as such, there will be a separate specification for: — adults and — children and young people (at Secure Children’s Homes (STC), Secure Training Centres (STC) and Young Offender Institutions (YOI)). The service involves the provision of vehicles and escorts for the safe and secure movement of prisoners between police stations, courts and prisons, and the supervision of prisoners whilst in custody in court buildings, awaiting, during and following court hearings. The service will include a requirement to work with the MoJ in support of its reform programmes involving changes to the prison and court estates, and including an expected increase in the use of virtual hearings using video technology, all of which will have an impact on the locations and the volume of movements and distance travelled during the life of the contract. The MoJ will be seeking to explore how the service might be improved through the greater use of technology, fuel and logistics efficiencies, and is keen to discuss commercial arrangements for the optimisation of value for money and risk transfer in delivering an effective service. PECS4 will include services for escorting children and young people as well as adults male and female prisoners. The services for children and young people is a distinct service from the adult and youth escorts with different service requirements such as; non-cellular vehicles, training and certification requirements for staff, higher staff to young person ratios, and as such, there will be a separate specification for: — adults and. — children and young people (at Secure Children’s Homes (STC), Secure Training Centres (STC) and Young Offender Institutions (YOI)).