UK5 - Transparency Notice - 715882481 - Cyber Mission Data – Lots 4 & 5 (Cyber Testing, QA and Governance)

The contract covers cyber testing, quality assurance, and governance services to support Defence in maintaining the effectiveness and reliability of its cyber mission data. The supplier is responsible for testing cyber data products, ensuring they meet required standards, and overseeing governance processes to maintain data integrity and compliance.

Direct Award info:

715882481 - Cyber Mission Data – Lots 4 & 5 (Cyber Testing, QA and Governance)

1. Legal Basis

This contract will be awarded in accordance with Section 41 of the Procurement Act 2023 (Direct Award in Special Cases), relying on Schedule 5, Paragraph 20. The Authority is satisfied that the contract is a defence authority contract and a defence and security contract, and that direct award is necessary to maintain the operational capability, effectiveness, readiness, and security of the armed forces.

2. Justification

The expiry of the previous contracts has resulted in a material and ongoing degradation of Defence’s cyber detection and response capability. A credible risk has consequently been identified that adversary cyber activity may go undetected or unmitigated, leading to disruption or denial of systems supporting command, communications, logistics, and operational planning. The resulting impact would be to degrade the ability of Defence to coordinate and execute operations effectively. In the most severe scenarios, this degradation could increase risk to personnel, including potential threat to life and limb. The Authority has therefore determined that immediate restoration of this capability by direct award of the proposed contract is necessary in order to maintain operational effectiveness and security of the armed forces.

3. Reasons for Limited Duration

The contract term is 9 months, representing the minimum necessary time required for the Authority to undertake a separate competitive procurement procedure and transition to a future solution whilst maintaining operational capability, effectiveness and security and avoiding risk and disruption to Defence’s cyber detection and response capability during this time.

4. Future Procurement

The Authority intends to undertake a competitive procurement for this requirement. This notice signals that intent to the market.

5. This notice activates an 8 calendar day standstill period. On completion of the standstill (subject to contract and potential challenge/market questions), the Authority will progress contract agreement actions with the intent of entering into contract on the earliest date of the 09/07/2026.

Full details can be found in the previous UK5 - Transparency notice ref, ocds-h6vhtk-06be78