Procurement Profile: Ministry of Justice

Procurement Profile: Ministry of Justice

Posted by James Piggott Picture of James Piggott on 05 January 2022

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is responsible for the UK's courts, prisons and probation services, aiming to bring "the principles of justice to life for everyone in society".

To help fulfil its responsibilities, the MoJ has awarded over £14 billion to private suppliers since January 2016, making it the 6th largest public sector buyer by total contract award value.

Using our market intelligence platform, this buyer profile digs into these contract awards - and much more - to reveal rich insights into the MoJ's procurement characteristics. With this hard data behind you, you'll better be able to understand, engage with and pitch to this procurement giant.

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From January 2016 - September 2020,* The MoJ - alongside its arms-length bodies - has spent nearly £22.2 billion with private suppliers, covering over 130,000 transactions.

The above analysis indicates that MoJ spend - both directly and indirectly via its arms-length bodies - has steadily risen since 2016.

Across this period, the MoJ's - including its arms-length bodies' - largest suppliers by total spend were:

Supplier / Organisation

Sector

Total Invoice Value

Largest Listed Spend

Value / Date

Amey Community Ltd

Infrastructure

£530m

Major repair and operationally critical new work

£8.91m / Apr 2019

GEO Amey Pecs Ltd

Prison services

£509m

Prisoner escort services

£5.71m / Aug 2018

Atos IT Services UK Ltd

IT

£451m

End User Computing Transition - Internet Desktop Solution

£8.29m / June 2016

Capita Business Services Ltd

Business services

£447m

Electronic monitoring services

£9.54m

London Community Rehabilitation Company Ltd

Rehabilitation

£382m

Probation services

£7.91m

 

This date range was used on account of unavailable spend data for Q4 2020 - Q4 2021.

 

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From January 2016 - December 2021, the MoJ awarded at least 2,360 contracts to 860 suppliers, with a combined total award value of £14.5 billion.

As the above analysis indicates, both the total volume and value of MoJ contract awards has steadily increased since 2016, rising from £1bn to £2.5bn across the period.

Total contract award value spiked in 2019 to £5.6bn alongside a number of large awards, including Prisoner Escort & Custody Services (Generation 4) - Lot South and North, valued at £752m and £632m, and awarded to Serco Ltd and GEO Amey Pecs Ltd respectively.

Over this period, the MoJ's largest contract awards have included:

Title

Award Date

Award Value

Supplier(s)

4 New Prison Contract Award

June 2021

£1.2bn

Wates Construction Ltd, Laing O'Rourke Construction Ltd, Kier Construction Ltd, ISG Construction Ltd

Call Off Contract from Public Sector Resourcing

Jan 2018

£900m

Alexander Mann Solutions Ltd

Prisoner Escort and Custody Services (Gen 4) - Lot South

Oct 2019

£745m

Serco Ltd

Prisoner Escort and Custody Services (Gen 4) - Lot North

Oct 2019

£632m

GEO Amey Pecs Ltd

Transforming Rehabilitation: Contracts for the Services of Rehabilitative Services & Offender Management

March 2019

£460m

The London Community Rehabilitation Company Ltd

See how we uncovered these insights

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Tussell's platform identified 357 likely-to-be-renewed contracts - with a total award value of £4.04 billion - that are due to expire from 2023 - 2025.*

The spike in upcoming renewal value in January 2024 comes from the expiration of 'Call Off Contract from Public Sector Resourcing' - to provide "a fully managed end-to-end service model through which hiring managers can access their contingent worker requirements" - which is valued at £900m.

Notably, 238 of these contracts - or 2/3rds - were call-offs from a framework, valued at £2.94bn. This suggests that if you're looking to do more business with the MoJ, it's worth getting onto - or remaining on - their most utilised frameworks.

The largest of these contracts - that were not call-offs - include: 

"likely-to-be-renewed" is defined as 'services' and 'supplies' contracts

 

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Since 2016, the MoJ has awarded contracts to at least 860 suppliers.*

The MoJ's top suppliers - by total contract award value - include:

Supplier

Sector

Total Contract Award Value

Largest Listed Contract

Contract Value / Award Date

Alexander Mann Solutions Ltd

Business solutions

£900m

Call Off Contract from Public Sector Resourcing

£900m / June 2018

Serco Ltd

Government services

£745m

Prisoner Escort and Custody Services (Generation 4) - Lot South

£745m / Oct 2019

GEO Amey Pecs Ltd

Prison services

£632m

Prisoner Escort and Custody Services (Generation 4) - Lot North

£632m / Oct 2019

Kier Construction Ltd

Construction

£553m

Design and Construction of a New Prion at HMP Wellingborough

£253m / Apr 2019

EDF Energy Ltd

Energy

£546m

Half Hourly Electricity - Ministry of Justice Estate

£260m / Aug 2019

The suppliers with whom the MoJ awards contracts most frequently includes Currie & Brown UK Ltd (66 contract awards, valued at £2.87m), WT Partnership (65 contract awards, valued at £10.2m), Mott Macdonald Ltd (61 contract awards, valued at £7.21m), Peopleplus Group Ltd (49 contract awards, valued at £115m) and LTE Group Ltd (37 contract awards, valued at £281m).

 

This figure includes subsidiaries.

 

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Below is a breakdown of the MoJ's IT and consultancy contract awards from January 2016 - December 2021. This analysis was conducted using CPV codes, meaning the data may include some anomalous results.

 

IT and Software (CPV: 48000000, 72000000, 42960000)

Since 2016, the MoJ has awarded approximately 429 IT and software-related contract awards, at a value of £1.3bn.*

The total value of such contracts has fluctuated over the past half-decade, while their total volume has gradually increased after a sharp drop in 2018.

The largest suppliers in this sector - by total contract award value - includes CGI IT UK Ltd (£190m), Trustmarque Solutions Ltd (£78.8m), Atos IT Services UK Ltd (£72.2m), Sopra Steria Ltd (£62.2m) and Solirius (£57.1m).

The largest contracts in this period included:

Title

Award Date

Award Value

Supplier(s)

Application Maintenance and Support Services

Nov 2020

£90m

CGI IT UK Ltd

AMS Services

Nov 2020

£60m

CGI IT UK Ltd

MOJ Microsoft EA Enterprise Agreement Requirement

June 2019

£57.5m

Trustmarque Solutions Ltd

Probation ICT Services

Dec 2016

£53.8m

Sopra Steria Ltd

End User Computing Services for HMPPS and HMPS Headquarters

Oct 2020

£47.8m

Entserv UK Ltd

This search excluded the term "translation"

 

Marketing, Recruitment, Consultancy (CPV: 79000000)

Since 2016, the MoJ has awarded approximately 218 contracts relating to marketing, recruitment and consultancy, valued at £1.52bn.*

The value of such contract awards peaked in 2018 due to a £900m 'Call Off Contract from Public Sector Resourcing' to Alexander Mann Solutions Ltd.

Excluding this contract, the total annual value of these contracts awarded has declined across the period, despite a steady rise in their volume.

The largest suppliers in this sector - by total contract award value - include Alexander Mann Solutions Ltd (£900m), Thebigword Ltd (£219m), Clarion UK Ltd (£77.5m), The Language Shop Ltd (£75.5m) and PWC LLP (£30.2m)

The largest contracts - excluding 'Call Off Contract from PSR' - in this period included:

Title

Award Date

Award Value

Supplier(s)

Contracts for Language Services

May 2016

£232m

Thebigword Ltd, Clarion UK Ltd, The Language Shop Ltd

Contracts for Language Services

Aug 2016

£132m

Thebigword Ltd, Clarion UK Ltd, The Language Shop Ltd

HMCTS Reform Delivery Partner

July 2017

£30m

PWC LLP

Language Services - Translation and Transcription

Apr 2021

£18.2m

Thebigword Ltd

GLAS Panel, 3GSS

Mar 2021

£17m

DLA Piper UK LLP

This search excluded the term "facilities management" and "hardware".

 

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Of the 2,360 contracts awarded by the MoJ since January 2016, 885 - or just over 1/3rd - were call-offs from a framework.

Using Tussell's frameworks analytics, we can see that the total value of these call-offs sat at approximately £4.25bn and spanned 75 frameworks.

By value of identified call-offs, the MoJ's most valuable frameworks are Public Sector Resourcing Award (£900m), Prison Education Framework (£508m), Facilities Management Marketplace (£488m), Facilities Management Services (£314m) and Framework Agreement for Prison Operator Services (£290m).

By count of identified call-offs, the MoJ's most utilised frameworks are Prison Education Framework (422 identified call-offs), Probation Services Dynamic Framework (110 identified call-offs), Provision for HMPPS Prisoner, Family and Significant other Support Services (54 identified call-offs), G-Cloud 11 (41 identified call-offs) and G-Cloud Services (28 call-offs).

Across this period, the MoJ has operated 29 of its own frameworks, calling-off 630 contracts across them at a value of £1.09bn. This means that though a good proportion of the contracts called-off by the MoJ originate from their own frameworks, a larger proportion lies outside them.

 

*

The MoJ spends billions of pounds every year with private sector suppliers: getting to grips with their procurement behaviour is key to unlocking more business with them.

This analysis only covers the surface of what Tussell's aggregated data platform can tell you about the public sector. With Tussell, you can analyse spend, contract awards, favoured frameworks and more across the public sector, helping you make more informed decisions and strategies when selling to the public sector.

Book a demo with our team to see how Tussell can unlock public sector insights for your business.

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