Initiate Procurement for Provision of Telephone Interpreting Services

This paper seeks approval to initiate procurement for the provision of telephone interpreting services. The current contract expires 30 April 2021. The estimated 4 year value of the service is £2.4m. The procurement is planned to be by way of a competitive process from the Eastern Shires Purchasing Organisation (ESPO) framework.

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to:

1. Approve the initiation of procurement activity for Telephone Interpreting Services via ESPO Framework 402 – 20 Language Services Specification LOT 4a Telephone Interpreting. The contract value will be a maximum of £2.4m over a 4 year period (3+1)

2. Where the results of the procurement process fall within the confirmed budget (£2.4m) delegate approval for the award of contract to the Director of Commercial Services.

1. Introduction and background

1.1. The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) is legally obliged to provide linguistic support for detainees and victims under various legislation. The MPS Language and Cultural Services (LCS) provide linguistic and cultural support to the MPS 24/7 365. This includes Interpreters and Translators, via Face to Face interviews – Remote interpreting, Video and MS Teams, MPS officer and staff volunteers and Telephone Interpreting for evidential and non-evidential purposes.

1.2. Telephone Interpreting supports the MPS policy of minimising officer extraction time from their duties in the community by supporting immediate communications with witnesses, victims and triaging potential detainees.

1.3. The current contract for Telephone Interpreting Services for the MPS will expire on 30th April 2021 with no options to extend.

2. Issues for consideration

2.1. The MPS report that amongst the city’s resident population over 300 languages are spoken and this level of diversity of language is only enhanced further through London’s tourist numbers. The service has seen increased volume since the pandemic and start of lockdown in March without the normal levels of commuters and tourism, which is expected to change over the next four years when these groups return to London.

2.2. The ability of MPS officers and staff to communicate with victims, offenders and the public in general is of key importance to the Mayor’s Police & Crime Plan and to the MPS in its strategic direction. It is only through building relationships that the MPS can ascertain information, provide community confidence and reassure victims of crime.

2.3. The MPS report that over the last 18 months LCS has worked with the incumbent Language Line Solutions (LLS) to make available a Telephone Interpreting application, next-generation, mobile video-and-audio solution. The LLS app extends telephone interpreting capabilities empowering officers with real-time access to an interpreters – wherever and whenever they are needed. This will be included in the requirement and may cause a portion of the 14 bidders on the framework not to bid.

2.4. The MPS note that feedback on the service from members of the public, that is, witnesses, victims and detainees can be made directly to the Investigating officer or through the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC). In the incumbent contract, police officers are able to give feedback to the supplier from the in app service (monitored by LCS) and to Language and Cultural Services Customer Services team.

3. Financial Comments

3.1. The estimated value of the proposed new contract is £2.4m over a 4 year period. The MPS has the budget for this sum.

4. Legal Comments

4.1. The Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) is a contracting authority as defined in the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (the Regulations). When awarding public contracts for goods and services valued at £189,330 or above, all contracting authorities must do so in accordance with the Regulations. This report confirms the value of the requirement is £2.4m

4.2. Paragraph 4.13 of the MOPAC Scheme of Delegation and Consent requires that approval is obtained by the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime (DMPC) for all requests to go out to tender for contracts of £500,000 or above.

4.3. Paragraph 7.23 of the Scheme provides the Director of Strategic Procurement has consent to approve the award of all contracts except for those subject to call in. Paragraph 4.14 provides the DMPC reserves the right to call in any MPS proposal to award a contract valued at £500,000 or above.

5. Commercial Issues

5.1. The proposed procurement will be to acquire a Telephone Interpreting Service to operate 24/7 365. The estimated maximum value of the procurement is £2.4m over the planned 4 year period.

5.2. The procurement will be undertaken via a further competition process via the Easter Shires Purchasing Organisation (ESPO) framework.

6. GDPR and Data Privacy

6.1. MOPAC will adhere to the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018 and ensure that any organisations who are commissioned to do work with or on behalf of MOPAC are fully compliant with the policy and understand their GDPR responsibilities.

6.2. The MPS have stated that this project does not use personally identifiable data of members of the public, so there are no GDPR issues to be considered.

7. Equality Comments

7.1. MOPAC is required to comply with the public sector equality duty set out in section 149(1) of the Equality Act 2010. This requires MOPAC to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations by reference to people with protected characteristics. The protected characteristics are: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.

7.2. The MPS has confirmed that an EIA is being completed to mitigate any risk of languages not being included. The provision is a positive intervention for Officers to communicate with citizens in the community and in custody, who do not have English as a first language.

8. Background/supporting papers

• Appendix 1 MPS Report INITIATE PROCUREMENT FOR THE PROVISION OF TELEPHONE INTERPRETING SERVICES FOR MPS