Official UK procurement notice
Screening and Assessment Lot 2 Reading Paper Tool Contingency
Authority: Ministry of Justice (Central government)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionA paper based assessment tool for accurately measuring the decoding ability of prisoners, supporting targeted literacy interventions and contributing to educational planning and rehabilitation efforts.
Objectives:
- Provide a standardised and reliable measure of prisoners’ decoding ability
- Enable prison staff and education teams to identify literacy needs quickly and effectively
- Support rehabilitation pathways and progression in English provision within prisons
- Produce consistent, comparable data that can be aggregated at establishment and system level
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
- Unspecified in notice
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 24 Sept 2025, 10:38 BST
- Last source update
- 24 Sept 2025, 10:38 BST
- Authority reference
prj_14329- FTS notice number
2025/S 000-059131- Latest notice
- Transparency notice (UK5)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-05a0c0Find a Tender
- Why no open competition
- Single Suppliers Intellectual Property Exclusive Rights; only one supplier could deliver (user choice)
- Published justification
Under the new Prison Education Services (PES), the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is required to provide a digital platform for the Screening and Assessment (S&A) of prisoners in functional skills, reading, and additional learning needs. However, following two recent unsuccessful procurement exercises for the reading element, the Authority is currently unable to fulfil this obligation. As an interim measure, a paper-based solution will be implemented for reading-related screening and assessments.
The evaluation tool to be provided is via sites licensed on an individual site license basis based upon the number of prisoners having assessments undertaken within a set period.
The contracting authority (MoJ) is invoking the single-supplier direct award provisions under paragraphs 5 and 6 of Schedule 5 of the Procurement Act 2023:
- paragraph 5 (a) due to a particular supplier having intellectual property rights or other exclusive rights, only that supplier can supply the goods, services or works required, and (b) there are no reasonable alternatives to those goods, services or works
This justification also applies due to:
- The MoJ does not have any express rights to transfer or licence the intellectual property rights to any other supplier
- No reasonable alternatives
Notice history
2 events · 1 release on Find a Tender · since 24 Sept 2025- Transparency notice published24 Sept 2025, 10:38 BSTUK5
- Contract signature expected30 Sept 2025, 23:59 BSTscheduled
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Published awards, contracts and bid statistics, not a forecast| Awarded to | Value | Date | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Powell Phonics LtdSMEPES Screening and Assessment - Lot 2 Reading Tool - Paper Based1 Oct 2025 – 30 Sept 2027Options: The provision of Training and Development activities is priced at a day rate. These are optional activities and will be commissioned on a project basis, no volumes for these activities are assured. | £49,238 | — | Standstill |
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
Bidders & participating suppliers
1 commercial party on the notice- Powell Phonics LtdAwarded supplier
Official documents & specifications (1)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Transparency notice Transparency notice on Find a Tender