Revenue Collection and Benefits Administration Services

Legal basis

Id

2023/54

Scheme

UKPGA

Uri

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2023/54/contents ↗

Procedure

Features

The Authority is conducting this Procurement using the Competitive Flexible procedure under Section 20(2)(b) of the Procurement Act 2023. Any interested organisation/consortium may submit an Initial Tender in response to the Invitation to Submit Initial Tender and this Tender Notice. The procurement will be conducted through two tender stages only; Stage 1 - Initial Tender Stage 2 - Improved Final Tender (Best and Final Offer) Between these two tender stages, the Authority will undertake a non‑scored presentation/clarification step. This step does not constitute a tender stage and does not involve negotiation. The Authority will not conduct negotiations or dialogue on pricing, solutions, or contract terms at any stage. The only interactions between Stage 1 and Stage 2 will be non-scored presentations/clarifications to verify and clarify submitted tenders. Any change a bidder wishes to make must be submitted only in its Improved Final Tender. Any presentations or clarification discussions are for the purposes of: • verifying and testing the content of written submissions; • clarifying ambiguities or inconsistencies; • confirming bidders' understanding of the Authority's requirements and proposed approach; and • testing and challenging the assumptions underpinning bidders' proposed solutions and pricing No commitments, improvements, or changes discussed during presentations or clarifications will be taken into account for evaluation unless they are formally incorporated into the bidder's Improved Final Tender.

Covered By

Submission terms

Electronic Submission Policy

allowed

Tender Period

Ends

27 Jul 2026, 12:00

Enquiry period

Ends

6 Jul 2026, 12:00

Expected award period

Ends

4 Jan 2027, 23:59

Lot Details

No Lots Division Rationale

The Authority has considered whether the requirement can appropriately be divided into lots, including in light of preliminary market engagement. The Authority has concluded that this procurement is not suitable for division into lots because the services and systems form a single integrated end‑to‑end operating model and require single-point accountability for statutory outcomes and customer experience. The requirement includes Revenue Collection (Council Tax and Business Rates), Benefits Administration (including Housing Benefit, Council Tax Support and discretionary schemes), Free School Meals administration, multi‑channel customer services, and provision and management of the supporting IT systems, together with mobilisation, continuous improvement and exit support. These components are operationally interdependent and must operate seamlessly for residents and businesses. Dividing the requirement into lots would create material interface risk and split accountability, particularly at the boundaries between: (i) customer contact (telephony/digital), (ii) back‑office processing and decision‑making, and (iii) system configuration, workflow and integrations. Experience in this service area indicates that performance failures and customer detriment most commonly arise at such interfaces, leading to delays, rework, inconsistent decision‑making and disputes over responsibility. Lotting would therefore increase delivery and governance complexity and reduce clarity of accountability for statutory compliance, performance, data quality, reporting and audit readiness. The Contract includes mobilisation to achieve go‑live on 1 October 2027. A lotted model would increase mobilisation risk by making readiness dependent on multiple suppliers' inter‑related deliverables (including data sharing, workflow hand‑offs and management information reconciliation). A single contract provides the clearest route to controlled mobilisation, stable day‑one operations and audit/assurance readiness. Lotting is also likely to reduce value for money due to duplicated overheads, additional integration and governance activity, increased risk pricing and a higher likelihood of disputes and change at interfaces. A single integrated contract supports a coherent commercial model, aligned incentives and a single performance framework. Competition is maintained because bidders may propose consortia, partnerships and/or specialist subcontractors, provided the prime contractor retains end‑to‑end accountability for delivery and outcomes across all service components.

Recurrence