Witness Service (2024 - 2028)

The Witness Service is an existing service which is being re-procured. The service operates in all Criminal Courts in England and Wales, delivered by 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 Secretary of State for Justice (the "Authority") invites suppliers to bid for a contract to provide support services to witnesses attending court or involved in court hearings including:

- Providing information to witnesses about their rights and the process of giving evidence;

- Supporting witnesses through the trial process, before, during and after the trial;

- Offering outreach support to vulnerable and intimidated witnesses.

In the service being re-procured, priority will be given to delivering essential improvements in value-for-money and quality of service, as well as testing ambitious options to future-proof the design of the service based on lessons learned in recent years.

The Authority intends to award a contract to a supplier to provide support which is guided by the following principles:

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

- 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.

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. All values should be considered as indicative only.

Additional information: The services being procured are covered by the type of services listed in Schedule 3 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (PCR) and so pursuant to Regulation 74 will be subject to the Light Touch Regime. The Authority will conduct a procedure similar to the Open Procedure but with some modifications which are set out in the procurement documents, and will comply with its obligations of equal treatment, transparency, non-discrimination and proportionality at all times during the procurement.

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

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

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

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

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

2) Click the 'PQQs / ITTs Open To All Suppliers' link. (These are pre-qualification questionnaires or invitations to tender open to any registered supplier).

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

Project Code - prj_9882 ITT Code - ITT_7158

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.