FOI – 2025-000030 Data Management Services (HTML)

Date received – 28 January 2025 | Date responded – 25 February 2025

Request

I would be most grateful if you would provide me, under the Freedom of Information Act, details in respect to the contract below.

Data management services:

http://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:470581-2020:TEXT:EN:HTML

The details we require are:

What are the contractual performance KPI's for this contract?

Suppliers who applied for inclusion on each framework/contract and were successful & not successful at the PQQ & ITT stages.

Actual spend on this contract/framework (and any sub lots), from the start of the contract to the current date.

Start date & duration of framework/contract?

Could you please provide a copy of the service/product specification given to all bidders for when this contract was last advertised?

Is there an extension clause in the framework(s)/contract(s) and, if so, the duration of the extension?

Has a decision been made yet on whether the framework(s)/contract(s) are being either extended or renewed?

Who is the senior officer (outside of procurement) responsible for this contract?

Thank you for your help.

Response

I refer to your freedom of information request that we received on 28 January 2025 requesting the following information.

We have now completed the search of our records and can provide you with the following information:

What are the contractual performance KPI's for this contract?

ServiceNow Software as a Service (SaaS) availability Service Level Agreement (SLA) means the supplier will be measured on the availability of the software being ready to use 99.8% of the time. In other words, it cannot be unavailable for any more than 0.2% of the time.

Suppliers who applied for inclusion on each framework/contract and were successful & not successful at the PQQ & ITT stages.

Under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Scotland Act, 2002 (FOISA) an organisation does not have to provide that information if it does not hold it. National Services Scotland (NSS) does not hold the information requested. There was no PQQ/ITT conducted, this direct award did not go through a complete tender process and was to meet the additional demands of the Scottish Health and Social Care sector during the COVID-19 pandemic, for reasons of extreme urgency brought about by events unforeseeable by the contracting authority in line with Regulation 33(1)(c) of the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015.

Actual spend on this contract/framework (and any sub lots), from the start of the contract to the current date.

Listed below are dates and annual contract/framework spend, note there is no sub lots:

• 1 Oct 2020 to 30 Sep 2021 £648,000
• 1 Oct 2021 to 30 Sep 2022 £1,483,168
• 1 Oct 2022 to 31 Mar 2023 £583,371.42
• 1 Apr 2023 to 31 Mar 2024 £40,200
• 1 Apr 2024 to 31 Mar 2025 £50,350

Start date & duration of framework/contract?

The original start date was 1 October 2020 for a twelve-month period. The contract has been extended on an annual basis since the beginning of the framework, the current extension is due to expire on 31 March 2025. Last year the licence was combined with our other ServiceNow instance to allow flexibility for the COVID-19 vaccination service.

Could you please provide a copy of the service/product specification given to all bidders for when this contract was last advertised?

Under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Scotland Act, 2002 (FOISA) an organisation does not have to provide that information if it does not hold it. NSS does not hold the information requested. There was no PQQ/ITT conducted, this direct award did not go through a complete tender process and was to meet the additional demands of the Scottish Health and Social Care sector during the COVID-19 pandemic, for reasons of extreme urgency brought about by events unforeseeable by the contracting authority in line with Regulation 33(1)(c) of the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015.

The product was developed in house led by NSS developers. This was co-designed with Public Health Scotland (PHS) and territorial Health Boards. It was a rapid application development within a very short time period. It was continuously improved by NSS and underwent a number of rapid sprints of development in the subsequent 2 years. PHS were the leaders of a Change Advisory Board and changes implemented by NSS.

This contract was for licences to use the Software as a Service platform only.

Is there an extension clause in the framework(s)/contract(s) and, if so, the duration of the extension?

The original contract extension was for a twelve-month period and has been extended annually ever since. The current extension is due to expire on 31 March 2025. Last year the licence was combined with our other ServiceNow instance to allow flexibility for the COVID-19 vaccination service.

Has a decision been made yet on whether the framework(s)/contract(s) are being either extended or renewed?

NSS are currently reviewing our options beyond 31 March 2025 and no decision has been made beyond this date.

Who is the senior officer (outside of procurement) responsible for this contract?

NSS operated this contract on behalf of PHS and Scottish Government (SG).

I trust you will find the information of assistance and if you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact us.

If you are unhappy with any aspect of how we have dealt with your request, you can make representations to us asking us to review the handling of your request.

If you require any further information, please contact the Associate Director Governance and Board Services (Board Secretary) within 40 working days of the date of this correspondence.

Contact

Address

If after a review you are still unhappy, you also have the right to apply to the Scottish Information Commissioner, who can be contacted at Kinburn Castle, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9DS, or via their application form.

National Services Scotland (NSS) is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. You can view all FOI responses within our FOI Publications repository.