GOV.UK Verify - Extension of Fifth Call Off Contract with Post Office Limited

Contracts

• The Fifth Call Off Contract issued under the GOV.UK Verify Framework Agreement · Post Office Limited

  Signed

  8 Apr 2019

  Value

  £986,884

  Status

  active

  • Change The Fifth Call Off Contract was amended by: 1. extending the Issuance Periods during which the Provider will continue to create new digital identities to the LoA1 level of assurance from 23rd September 2021 to 22nd April 2022. 2. reviewing the prices payable for the First Assurance of a New User's identity; 3. Clarifying the parties' respective rights and obligations with respect to the use of accounts; and 4 making provision for the transfer of user data and trust from the Providers to the Authority before the end of the Call Off Contracts., Need for additional works, services or supplies by the original contractor/concessionaire: The Issuance Period of the Fifth Call Off Contract was extended under r.72(1)(b) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 on grounds that additional services are required where a change of contractor (i) cannot be made for economic or technical reasons; and (ii) would cause significant inconvenience or substantial duplication of cost. The Authority is in the process of putting in place a new model for providing digital identity services to Government. This will replace the GOV.UK Verify programme with an in-house solution. A short extension of the Fifth Call Off Contract and consequential amendments was needed to bridge the gap between the contractual end date for the remaining Verify contracts and the earliest date when the Authority expects to be able to have a live service of the future model so as to ensure continuity of service for Government departments and users who rely on the Verify solution to access Government Services. The Authority considers that it had a valid "economic reason" for agreeing short extensions to the Call Off Contracts because there is no realistic scenario in which running a new procurement could have resulted in the Authority achieving better value for money than it would have done by extending the contract. The Authority did not consider that any supplier would have been able to submit a competitive tender for such a short contract, particularly when winning the tender would not have given the supplier any incumbent advantage with respect to the future solution, due to the change of model from Verify. This view was informed by informal market testing carried out by the Authority. In addition, running a re-procurement for such a short term contract would have resulted in significant inconvenience and substantial duplication of costs at a time when the Digital Identity Programme needs to focus its efforts on delivering the future model for digital identity services in Government. In calculating the duration of the extension to the Issuance Period the Authority carried out price modelling to assess the maximum permitted extension before the increase in price would exceed 50% of the original contract value.

Dispute resolution & review bodies

• N/AReview body N/A