Contract award notice
Results of the procurement procedure
Section I: Contracting
entity
I.1) Name and addresses
Northern Ireland Courts and Tribunals Service
c/o CPD Clare House 303 Airport Road West
BELFAST
BT3 9ED
UK
E-mail: justice.cpd@finance-ni.gov.uk
NUTS: UK
Internet address(es)
Main address: https://etendersni.gov.uk/epps
Address of the buyer profile: https://etendersni.gov.uk/epps
I.4) Type of the contracting authority
Body governed by public law
I.5) Main activity
General public services
Section II: Object
II.1) Scope of the procurement
II.1.1) Title
DoJ - NICTS - Provision of Transcription Services
Reference number: 5337195
II.1.2) Main CPV code
75230000
II.1.3) Type of contract
Services
II.1.4) Short description
The NICTS wishes to establish a contract with a single supplier for the provision of quality court transcription services that will meet the current business needs. The provision of Court Transcription Services is a mandatory service which is governed by The Criminal Appeal (Northern Ireland) Rules 1968 (Rules 24-29). In addition, the Judicature (NI) Act 1978 (S16 (1) and S46(1)) specifies ‘courts of record’, which includes the High Court, Crown Court, Family Care Centres and Coroner’s Courts. The contract will run for a period of 4 years with options to extend for further periods of up to and including 24 months beyond this period.
II.1.6) Information about lots
This contract is divided into lots:
No
II.1.7) Total value of the procurement
Value excluding VAT:
1 000 000.00
GBP
II.2) Description
II.2.2) Additional CPV code(s)
75231000
79130000
79100000
II.2.3) Place of performance
NUTS code:
UKN
II.2.4) Description of the procurement
The NICTS wishes to establish a contract with a single supplier for the provision of quality court transcription services that will meet the current business needs. The provision of Court Transcription Services is a mandatory service which is governed by The Criminal Appeal (Northern Ireland) Rules 1968 (Rules 24-29). In addition, the Judicature (NI) Act 1978 (S16 (1) and S46(1)) specifies ‘courts of record’, which includes the High Court, Crown Court, Family Care Centres and Coroner’s Courts. The contract will run for a period of 4 years with options to extend for further periods of up to and including 24 months beyond this period.
II.2.5) Award criteria
Quality criterion: Qualitative
/ Weighting: 60
Cost criterion: Quantitative
/ Weighting: 40
II.2.11) Information about options
Options:
Yes
Description of options:
The contract will run for a period of 4 years with options to extend for further periods of up to and including 24 months beyond this period.
II.2.13) Information about European Union funds
The procurement is related to a project and/or programme financed by European Union funds:
No
II.2.14) Additional information
Contract Value. The figure indicated in Section II 1.5 represents an estimated contract value. This value reflects the potential scale of the contract and takes into account potential optional extension periods and the uptake of potential optional services as detailed in the tender documents. This figure does not however take into account the application of indexation. Neither CPD nor the Authority can provide any guarantee as to the level of business under this contract. The Contracting Authority does not bind itself to accept the lowest or any tender. Economic Operators remain responsible for all costs and expenses incurred by them or by any third party acting under instructions from the Economic Operator in connection with taking part in this procurement process regardless of whether such costs arise as a consequence, directly or indirectly of any amendments made to the procurement documents by the Contracting Authority at any time. No legally binding contract shall arise and an Economic Operator shall. have no legitimate expectation that a contract will be entered into until such time as entry into the Contract has been confirmed by the. Contracting Authority. Economic Operators should note that all dates, time periods and figures in relation to values and volumes specified. in this notice and the procurement documents are approximate only and the Contracting Authority reserves the right to change any or all of them.
Section IV: Procedure
IV.1) Description
IV.1.1) Type of procedure
Open procedure
IV.1.8) Information about Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)
The procurement is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement:
Yes
IV.2) Administrative information
IV.2.1) Previous publication concerning this procedure
Notice number in the OJ S:
2024/S 000-036851
Section V: Award of contract
Contract No: 1
Title: Contract
A contract/lot is awarded:
Yes
V.2 Award of contract
V.2.1) Date of conclusion of the contract
20/03/2025
V.2.2) Information about tenders
Number of tenders received: 7
Number of tenders received from SMEs: 1
Number of tenders received from tenderers from EU Member States: 0
Number of tenders received from tenderers from non-EU Member States: 1
Number of tenders received by electronic means: 7
The contract has been awarded to a group of economic operators:
No
V.2.3) Name and address of the contractor
withheld for security reasons
N/A
UK
E-mail: justice.cpd@finance-ni.gov.uk
NUTS: UK
Internet address(es)
URL: https://etendersni.gov.uk/epps
The contractor is an SME:
Yes
V.2.4) Information on value of the contract/lot (excluding VAT)
Initial estimated total value of the contract/lot:
Total value of the contract/lot:
: 1 000 000.00
GBP
V.2.5) Information about subcontracting
Section VI: Complementary information
VI.3) Additional information
Contract Monitoring. The successful contractor’s performance on the contract will be regularly monitored in line with the tender documentation. Contractors not delivering on contract requirements is a serious matter. It means the public purse is not getting what it is paying for. If a contractor fails to reach satisfactory levels of contract performance they will be given a specified time to improve. If, after the specified time, they still fail to reach satisfactory levels of contract performance, the matter will be escalated to senior management in CPD for further action. If this occurs and their performance still does not improve to satisfactory levels within the specified period, it may be regarded as an act of grave professional misconduct and they may be issued with a Notice of Unsatisfactory Performance and the contract may be terminated. The issue of a Notice of Unsatisfactory Performance can result in the Contractor being excluded from all procurement competitions being undertaken by Centres of Procurement Expertise on behalf of bodies covered by the Northern Ireland Procurement Policy for a period of three years from the date of issue. The Authority expressly reserves the rights:. . (I). not to award any contract as a result of the procurement process commenced by publication of this notice;. (II). to make whatever changes it may see fit to the content and structure of the tendering Competition;. (III). to award (a) contract(s) in respect of any part(s) of the [services] covered by this notice; and. (IV). to award contract(s) in stages.. . and in no circumstances will the Authority be liable for any costs incurred by candidates.".
VI.4) Procedures for review
VI.4.1) Review body
The UK does not have any such bodies with responsibility for appeal/mediation procedures. Instead; any challenges are dealt with by the High Court, Commercial Division, to which proceedings may be issued regarding alleged breaches of the PCR 2015 as amended
N/A
UK
VI.4.3) Review procedure
Precise information on deadline(s) for review procedures:
CPD complied with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and, where appropriate, and incorporated a standstill period (i.e. a minimum of 10 calendar days) at the point information on the award of contract was communicated to tenderers. That notification provided full information on the award decision. This provided time for the unsuccessful tenderers to challenge the award decision before the contract was entered into..
VI.5) Date of dispatch of this notice
20/03/2025