The Home Office says that it anticipates that once relevant legislation, now before Parliament, has received Royal Assent, it would embark upon procurement exercises for the establishment of a National Identity Cards scheme. Commencement dates for procurements may vary. In line with the emerging delivery model for the National Identity Cards scheme through a new executive agency of the Home Office that will subsume the United Kingdom Passport Service and its business, potential procurements covered by this Notice may include the current business activities of the United Kingdom Passport Service and may involve delivery of new services or build upon existing systems and processes.
The procurement activity for the scheme is likely to include the following areas, which may be procured in functional lots or individually and may comprise a mixture of services/ supplies/ works.
Order /listings given here should not be taken as an indication of any potential lot structure:
- The creation, hosting and maintenance of a National Identity Register (database(s) and software services) - hosting is likely to require significant data centre capability (either built for purpose or existing); Biometric recording and matching technology;
- Services to manage the end to end process of registering individuals onto the database and maintenance of the database; Network, IT and communications systems (and support services);
- Technical integration services; Scheme Integration services; Secure production and distribution of Identity Cards/ Documents;
- Provision of office space/ FM services (both for enrolment and administration);
- Corporate support systems/ services;
- Contact centre support services;
- Services to support the provision of Identity verification services to user organisations (including accreditation of user organisations, account management and marketing).
Contracts are likely to require the provision of such services to deliver the scheme covering all resident United Kingdom citizens and others entitled to British passports, and, in the case of Identity Cards, up to the whole adult (over 16) population of the UK (including certain foreign nationals) for the duration of the contracts (which may vary in start date and duration).
The Identity Cards Programme is engaging in market sounding to establish market capability and ensure that requirements and procurement strategy are fit for purpose. Potential suppliers interested in the procurement opportunities the Programme may present should note that the commercial section of www.identitycards.gov.uk will be used as the main point for communicating with the market prior to formal launch of the procurement.
Those wishing to contact the Programme should complete and submit the "supplier form" that can be found on the web site. This form allows for information to be provided to the Programme, but will not form part of the formal procurement process.
A procurement prospectus, which will set out the thinking on requirements and packaging options and seek market views on assumptions and issues, may be made available once requirements and potential procurement strategies have been defined Those completing the supplier form will be alerted to this publication, which will be placed on the Programme web-site.
Any decision to take forward the procurement would be dependent upon legislation. The final contracting authority for procurement activity may be a new executive agency of the Home Office.
Quelle: Publictechnology, 12.08.2005
