Request for Information (RFI) Exercise for Home Office Quality Assurance & Testing (QAT) Contracts

Description

The UK Home Office (referred to hereafter as the Authority) is seeking further input from prospective suppliers through a Request for Information (RFI) exercise in support of its planned Quality Assurance and Testing (QAT) procurements. The Authority currently has a number of contracts for QAT capability aligned to portfolios across the Home Office and is developing a future commercial strategy that is expected to consolidate these services into two core testing capability contracts by Autumn 2027. Following the Authority's recent supplier engagement event on 27th July, this RFI forms the next stage of pre-market engagement. The event provided an opportunity to introduce our objectives and gather initial market feedback. Building on the insights received, the Authority is now seeking more detailed information from suppliers to help refine its requirements, further develop its procurement strategy, and inform decisions regarding the future commercial and contracting approach. The Authority is particularly interested in supplier views and experience relating to procurement and delivery models, transition and mobilisation, commercial and performance management approaches, the use of innovation, automation and Artificial Intelligence, tooling and technical capabilities, support for SMEs, and experience of supporting organisations to transition towards product-centric delivery models and Quality Engineering practices. The exact scope, duration and value of the future contracts remains under development. However, the current expectation is that each contract will have a minimum term of three years, with a maximum spend of £150m (including any extensions). While the current intention is to compete these contracts through the GCA's Quality Assurance and Testing for IT Systems 2 Dynamic Purchasing System (RM6148), the Authority continues to assess its options and welcomes responses from all interested suppliers. This RFI is for information gathering purposes only and does not constitute a call for competition, nor will participation influence any future procurement process. Suppliers wishing to participate should register and respond via the Home Office eSourcing Portal: https://homeoffice.app.jaggaer.com You will find the request for information under the section with the reference pqq_864.