Credit: Pete Linforth/Pixabay

The Ministry of Justice is seeking to sign a contract worth up to £180m with a supplier that can provide local area networking expertise – including support with the insourcing of key services.

The ministry has published a contract notice inviting bids from potential providers of LAN technology that can “securely connect the MoJ’s devices – [across] circa 1,000 sites – to other networked devices and to the wide area network service”.

The chosen firm will be expected to offer “management of the MoJ’s existing fixed and wireless LAN infrastructure”, as well as “any newly provisioned infrastructure” put in place across the course of a three-year contract. 

Services will be split into two broad categories – which the ministry has dubbed ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ LAN offerings.

The former will encompass “remote management – including monitoring, configuration, [and] software upgrades… and the associated security services”, according to the contract notice. The MoJ indicated that, at some point during the contract, it wishes yhe provision of these services to transition from the supplier to the ministry’s internal teams.

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“As a result, the contract will be structured to allow for easier transition to such an insourced arrangement,” the notice said. “The current expectation is that the insourcing of the Soft LAN services will occur no earlier than the start of the third contract year.”

So-called hard LAN services, meanwhile, will include those that can typically only be delivered in person, such as “the supply, installation, physical configuration and decommissioning of LAN infrastructure and devices and other activities such as conducting surveys, cabling and patching, and physical attendance at MoJ sites to maintain or repair the LAN infrastructure and devices”.

“In addition, there are service management, social value and security obligations which the supplier must comply with in the delivery of the LAN services,” the notice added. “The contract for LAN services will be entered into with MoJ. However, the services will be provided for the benefit not only of MoJ but also a range of service recipients – including a range of MoJ executive agencies, arm’s-length bodies, government companies and other entities to whom MoJ provides services. The contract will contain a list of the initial service recipients who are to benefit from the provision of LAN services, as well as a list of potential service recipients who may wish to be added to the list of service recipients during the term of the contract.”

Bids for the contract are open until 24 May, with a deal due to come into effect in April 2024. The engagement will last for an initial term of three years and carries an estimated value of somewhere between £70m and £180m.