Official UK procurement notice
Protective Monitoring Transition and Exit
Authority: Home Office (Central government)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionThe 2-month continuation (plus 1-month contingency) of the current protective monitoring service using IBM QRadar for on-premises and AWS-based Buyer-owned infrastructure and applications, to allow for transition to the in-house, long-term replacement solution. An operational support team monitor, support and patch the Protective Monitoring service and QRadar components including onboarding of new log sources. A Security Operations Centre (SOC) provides analysis of alerts, carries out triage and investigation of any potential security event, and alerts the Buyer.
The monitoring service will be delivered from January 1st 2026 until March 31st 2026. An operational support team shall monitor, support and patch the Protective Monitoring service and QRadar components including onboarding of new log sources. A Security Operations Centre (SOC) shall provide analysis of alerts, carries out triage and investigation of any potential security event, and alert the Buyer.
The in-house, long-term replacement solution is in the final stages of development and governance with an anticipated go-live of Jan/Feb 2026 with the current IBM QRadar contract terminating on 31st Decmeber 2025 with no further extensions available, this short-term continuation contract is required to support transition.
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedLot #1Awarded
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Procedure method
- Direct award
- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Notice status
- Awarded without competition
- Procurement threshold
- Unspecified in notice
- Regulatory regime
- Standard
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Direct award (no call for competition)
- GPA / WTO covered
- Yes (GPA)
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 9 Dec 2025, 16:51 GMT
- Last source update
- 11 Jun 2026, 12:58 BST
- Authority reference
P_19864- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-055195- Latest notice
- Contract termination notice (UK11)
- Delivery area
- Not published
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-05f22cFind a Tender
- Why no open competition
- Single Suppliers Technical Reasons; Additional Repeat Extension Partial Replacement
- Published justification
IBM is the incumbent provider of the protective monitoring service. The current contract ends on 31 December 2025, and the replacement in-house CSOC solution will not complete early life support until mid-late February 2026. Continuity of service is essential to maintain security assurance.
The time and cost of moving to an alternative supplier for a 2-3 month period would pose significant technical and financial risk. Transitioning to a new supplier would require onboarding, data conversion, and configuration, which is not feasible within the timeframe.
The current log data is in IBM’s proprietary format. Converting this large volume of data to another system within the timeframe is not considerd possible and in any case would require substantial resources and could compromise security monitoring during the transition.
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
18 Dec 2025 → 11 Jun 2026 · 2 dates- Standstill ends313 days ago18 Dec 2025, 23:59 GMT
- Notice published138 days ago11 Jun 2026, 12:58 BST
Notice history
6 events · 5 releases on Find a Tender · since 9 Dec 2025- Transparency notice published9 Dec 2025, 16:51 GMTUK5
- Contract award notice published9 Dec 2025, 17:20 GMTUK6
- Contract award notice published23 Dec 2025, 16:09 GMTUK6
- Contract signature expected9 Jan 2026, 23:59 GMTscheduled
- Contract details notice published27 Jan 2026, 14:46 GMTUK7
- Contract termination notice published11 Jun 2026, 12:58 BSTUK11
Routine re-releases (5)
- 2025-12: 2 releases · 9 Dec 2025, 9 Dec 2025
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Published awards, contracts and bid statistics, not a forecast| Awarded to | Value | Date | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| IBM Group9 Jan 2026 – 30 May 2026Amended: The value of this contract has been increased from £216,000 to £337,664.64 ex. VAT. This is an increase from £313,200 to £405,197.57 inc. VAT. The value has been amended due to an error in the calclation of the charges. The estimated date the contract will be signed has changed from 23rd December 2025 to 9th January 2026 to account for a new 8 working day standstill period. The contract start date… | £337,665 | 2 Dec 2025 | Awarded |
Contracts
Contract 1 · IBM Group
- Signed
- 13 Jan 2026
- Value
- £337,665
- Period
- 13 Jan 2026 – 30 May 2026
- Status
- terminated
- Final value
- £337,665
- Termination
- contractCompleted
No agreed KPIs: Service levels are included. Further performance indicators not suitable for transition and exit arrangement.
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
Bidders & participating suppliers
1 commercial party on the notice- IBM UK LtdAwarded supplier
Official documents & specifications (5)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Contract termination notice Contract termination notice on Find a Tender
- Contract details notice Contract details notice on Find a Tender
- Contract award notice Contract award notice on Find a Tender
- Contract award notice Contract award notice on Find a Tender
- Transparency notice Transparency notice on Find a Tender