Issue - meetings

Report of the Executive Director – Corporate Services and Commercial

The Cabinet considered the report of the Executive Director – Corporate Services and Commercial that sought authority to go out to the market for the provision of mobile telephony SIM cards to support the mobile data and telephony provision across the Authority. The report set out the background to the Council’s current contract with EE, which was due to expire on 31 March 2026 and recommended a route to market, in line with Public Procurement legislation.

Cabinet Members commented on the use of local businesses, as part of the procurement process.

Decisions Made:

That

(1)      the use of Crown Commercial Services Framework (RM6261) Mobile Voice and Data Services to run a further competition for the provision of a new corporate mobile telephone contract, with a proposed term of an initial 3-years with the option of 2 further 12-month extension periods, be authorised;

(2)      the Executive Director – Corporate Services and Commercial, in consultation with the Cabinet Member - Corporate Services, be granted delegated authority to award a contract resulting from the above procurement, and to award any extension thereof.

Reasons for the Decisions:

On approval of the recommendations within the report, the next steps would be to complete the procurement process to ensure that Sefton had a new contract in place before the current contract ends, thereby allowing for an implementation/transition period should the contract be awarded to a new provider.

Alternative Options Considered and Rejected:

The other option available to the Council would be to consider a direct award to the incumbent provider (EE Ltd). This was rejected on the basis that the Council had been with the incumbent provider for a number of years and by going out competitively to the market, could realise savings for the Council but at minimum confirm value for money had been achieved. Unlike some other ICT services, the incumbent provider’s services were not embedded or intrinsically linked enough to bring into consideration a large cost of change.

Resource within both ICT and Procurement had been identified and reserved to conduct the procurement exercise.