Update to the Prisoner Communication Stratey Notice

The current prisoner communications service involves use of what are widely referred to as PIN phones - specially designed pay-phone devices, which are operated with a Personal Identification Number (PIN) linked to a specified prisoner’s account (instead of cash or a phonecard).

A prisoner can only make calls to limited nominated numbers which are pre-vetted. This includes family, friends and legal representatives. Calls are recorded with the exception of calls to legal representatives. The current service does not allow incoming calls from outside the prison.

This service is currently provided to approximately 81k prisoners, across 110 public prisons in England and Wales. The service is vital to the peaceful and successful running of prisons. It enables prisoners to maintain contact with key people such as friends, family and support services.

There have been recent developments in the provision of communication technology and services to those in prison over the last few years, especially in response to the Coronavirus pandemic. These have included rolling out a secure social video calling service to every prison in England and Wales, which enables prisoners to have a video call with their family or friends.

As stated in II.1.4 above, MoJ is in the process of defining its future strategy for prisoner communications, before securing internal, Cabinet Office and Treasury approvals to go to market to procure a modernised prisoner communication service.

It has not been decided if the future service will be a concession contract or services contract

As set out above, the purpose of this Prior Information Notice (PIN) is to:

I. inform the market of the status of the Ministry of Justice (MOJ’s) future prisoner communication strategy

II. inform the market of prospective opportunities for the provision of future prisoner communication services.

It is the Authority’s intention to participate with potential providers through market engagement event(s), to be held in November 2022.

In the first instance suppliers should respond to this PIN to register their interest. The form of response should be limited to the provision of a single point of contact (company name, contact name, job title, e-mail address and telephone number). Suppliers who register their interest will then be held on a register.

At a future date all suppliers responding to this PIN will be invited to attend the market engagement event(s). We will issue an invite to all interested parties, confirming the date, timings and location of the event(s).

The events might be conducted on Microsoft Teams

In order to express your interest in attending any future Market Engagement event, please address an e-mail to prisonercommunication@justice.gov.uk

The subject of your e-mail should be: Future Prisoner Comms PIN Query.

Potential providers will not be prejudiced by any response to this PIN, or failure to respond.

This PIN does not formally signify the beginning of a procurement and does not constitute a commitment by the MoJ to undertake any market engagements events or procurement exercise.

The MoJ will reserve its rights as to the procurement route used. In the event that a suitable pre-exiting framework is identified during market engagement the MoJ may decide not to issue a contract notice. Should a suitable framework not be identified and the MoJ decides to formally commence the procurement for prisoner communication services a separate contract notice will be issued in the Find a Tender Service www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Search ↗

Any resulting procurement will be managed electronically via the MoJ e-sourcing suite and details on how to register on the portal will be provided.