Up to £78m of Ministry of Justice business up for grabs

About five suppliers to be invited to tender for three-year contract worth between £54m and £78m

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is on the hunt for an IT firm to supply it with between £54m and £78m worth of kit and services over a three-year period.

In a recently published tender document, the MoJ said its major ICT contracts were negotiated before it was established in 2007 while the National Offender Management Service and HM Courts and Tribunal Service were still in force, before they became agencies of the MoJ.

As a result, it claimed, the existing contracts are broadly aligned to those units and are expected to expire in the coming few years, thus need replacing.

The MoJ said its Future IT Sourcing (FITS) programme has been created to implement the delivery of ICT services which will replace existing contracts and better support it in the future. The new contract will be split into two parts: hosting services and datacentre services, and will include the provision, installation, maintenance and operation of ICT systems as well as datacentre hosting services.

The contract is set to run for at least three years, with the option of extension by two further 12-month periods. The deal is expected to be valued at between £54m and £78m, excluding VAT, and between five and eight suppliers are thought to be invited to tender for the business.