Witness Service (2023 - 2027)

The Witness Service is an existing service which will be recommissioned. The Witness Service has operated in all Criminal Courts in England and Wales since 2003, with a combination of volunteers and paid staff providing emotional and practical support to prosecution and defence witnesses to enable them to give their best evidence.

The future service will be materially similar to the current model. However, we will also examine options for future improvement through effective engagement with the market.

The Ministry of Justice is seeking a provider to provide support guided by the following principles, reflecting our vision for the service:

To continue to deliver a service for witnesses attending court - building on the existing model for support and the significant benefits it provides to witnesses.

To provide the service flexibility to better respond to new challenges, including pandemic-like scenarios, future use of Nightingale courts, Extended Operating Hours and support witnesses in giving remote and pre-recorded evidence.

To improve the service at a detailed level, learning lessons from victim policy in recent years. This will include working to create a more trauma-informed approach, improving the accessibility of the service and improving partnership working with victim advocates.

To create opportunities within the service design to test ambitious options for future improvement of the service, including through digital support.

The anticipated quantity or scope is an estimate of the potential value of the contract and does not in any way guarantee any level of expenditure. The estimated cost range is real in 2022, does not account for inflation. All values should be considered as indicative only.

Additional information: 1.TYPE OF PROCEDURE: The services being awarded are listed within Schedule 3 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (PCR) and so pursuant to regulation 74 will be subject to the light regime under which the Authority is not obliged to comply with the full requirements of the PCR. The Authority will conduct an Open procedure and will comply with its obligations of equal treatment, transparency, non-discrimination and proportionality at all times during the procurement.

2. QUALITATIVE ASSESSMENT: Details of the objective criteria for selecting a winning bidder will be set out in the procurement documents.

3. ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL ASSESSMENT Details of the Authority's approach to Economic and Financial assessment will be set out in the procurement documents.

4 AWARD CRITERIA: The award criteria will be based on the Most Economically Advantageous Tender (MEAT), evaluated on a Price per Quality Point (PQP) basis. Variant bids will not be permitted

5.REGISTRATION: The Authority will be performing events through its e-Sourcing Portal known as Jaggaer. The e-Sourcing Portal is an online application that allows all potential suppliers to create and submit their responses to any SQ and tenders via the internet. Bidders Instructions to express an interest in this tender

1). Login to the Portal with the username/password.

2) Click the ITTs Open To All Suppliers link. (These are invitations to tender open to any registered supplier).

3) Click on the relevant ITT to access the content using the following:

Project Code - prj_7250 ITT Code - ITT_5936

4). Click the Express Interest button at the top of the page. This will move the ITT into your My ITTs page. This is a secure area reserved for your projects only.

5) You can now access any attachments by clicking Buyer Attachments in the ITT Details box. Instructions on how to submit a tender will be provided.