Pre Market Consultation Exercise Department of Justice (DoJ) Provision of Electronic Monitoring Services in Northern Ireland 2021/2022

Tender description

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is preparing to initiate a procurement process to award a contract for the provision of services for the Electronic Monitoring (EM) of offenders in Northern Ireland. Under Article 35 of Criminal Justice (Northern Ireland) Order 2008 a curfew requirement can include the provision of EM as a condition of court bail, post-release licence or range of community supervision orders for adults and young persons. This demonstrates the scope of EM as a public protection tool for both for the judiciary and for the criminal justice agencies monitoring offenders in the community. DOJ is initiating this pre-market consultation prior to the competitive procurement for the provision of EM services within Northern Ireland, which currently has an anticipated Service Delivery Go Live date of 03 October 2022. Lot 1: The current EM service uses Radio Frequency (RF) technology and involves installing a tag to the ankle of the subject along with a base unit within the curfew address to monitor the subject's home curfew compliance. The base unit has continuous connection with a monitoring hub that can report on any EM curfew breaches to the supervising agency within prescribed time limits. The service requires a monitoring hub to be available at all times throughout the year and a resource to install and remove EM equipment and investigate and report on suspected breaches during curfew hours. The integrity, security and storage of EM data is of paramount importance both to meet legal requirements for the protection of sensitive personal data and to potentially support the detection and investigation of crime. Future Provision It is envisaged that future provision of EM services will include the option of Global Positioning System (GPS) monitoring to monitor an individual's whereabouts which will require an amendment to current legislation. No timeframe can be provided at this stage for the commencement of GPS monitoring within the lifetime of the contract. DOJ also wishes to explore during this exercise the potential application of Remote Alcohol and/or Drug Monitoring technologies, to remotely test offender compliance with alcohol and/or DRUG prohibitions, as part of a suite of offender monitoring capabilities. In addition, interested parties are invited to provide details of any other technologies/solutions that could be deployed to support monitoring compliance with licence or bail conditions. Contract Value & Length The contract value is not set at this stage. It is envisaged that the contract will include a review of services after a set period with the possibility of a further extension period. The contract period will be confirmed at the tender stage. Note: there is a question pertaining to the contract period within the questionnaire.