Immigration and Asylum

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Latest Updates

10 February 2012 – Publication of outcome of interim tender process
Outcomes of the recent tender processes for Immigration Services in the Access Points of City of Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset, City of Plymouth, Norfolk and Suffolk can now be found in the documents panel on the right-hand side of this page. This document shows the additional Matter Starts being delivered through Contracts which began on 1 February 2012. This is in addition to work previously awarded through the tender process in 2009-10.

11 November 2011 - Final "Frequently Asked Questions" document published for interim tender process for Immigration Services in the Access Points of City of Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset, City of Plymouth, Norfolk and Suffolk
As set out at 8.5 of Part One of the Information for Applicants (IFA), we have today published our final FAQ document.  

The deadline for questions about the IFA, the PQQ or the ITT was up to 5pm on 4 November 2011. Questions of wider interest have been collated and answered in the final "Immigration Services – October 2011 Frequently Asked Questions" document.  The FAQ document can be found in the Documents panel on the right hand side of this page.

We are no longer able to answer questions relating to the IFA, the PQQ or the ITT after the above deadline.

If you have technical queries on how to use the eTendering system, you should contact technical support on 020 3349 6610 or by email to lsc@bravosolution.co.uk.

The deadline for submitting Tenders is 5pm on 18 November 2011.

24 October 2011 - Tender for Immigration Services in the Access Points of City of Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset, City of Plymouth, Norfolk and Suffolk

About this tender
A main Immigration tender exercise was run in November 2009 and new contracts for the majority of areas have been operational since 15 November 2010.  We have recently identified issues around the provision of Immigration Services in four Access Points and are subsequently opening new invitations to tender for these services. The four Access Points where we are inviting tenders are:

The tender opened on 24 October 2011 and will close at 5pm on 18 November 2011.  The new contracts go live on 1 February 2012.  An Information for Applicants (IFA) document can be found in the 'Documents' section of this page.

21 October 2011 - Immigration Tender processes in City of Bristol, South Gloucesterhire & North Somerset, City of Plymouth, Norfolk and Suffolk to open on Monday 24 October 2011
We are unable to publish these Invitations to Tender today as we had previously indicated in our news story last Thursday. We will be publising these Invitations to Tender on Monday 24 October.

8 August 2011 - Notices re: Expressions of Interest - Norfolk Access Point, Suffolk Access Point and The City of Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset Access Point

In our update of 26 July we stated that in some areas we may need to consider additional tender activity as a result of IAS entering into administration. We have therefore today published notices and forms relating to expressions of interest to deliver Immigration and Asylum services in the above Access Points.

These notices are available in the documents panel on the right hand side of this page.  Please note that the deadline for responses is 4pm on Monday 15 August 2011.

5 August 2011 - IAS case transfer update

It has been two weeks since the IAS file transfer process began and over a quarter of the 8,140 IAS cases have now been allocated to alternative providers.

The administrator has placed our list of alternative providers on the IAS website and is operating a standard email/fax system for file requests. They have been actively engaging with us to secure the orderly transfer of files to alternative providers.

In addition, revised schedules for work at Immigration Removal Centres have been issued to providers. We continue to liaise with the UK Border Agency and with the Judiciary to ensure they are aware of progress being made.

We have also started reallocating the matter starts that IAS had not used. In some areas we have gone back to the outputs of the 2010 tender exercise and offered new matter starts to those providers who were eligible for a contract in that tender exercise but were either not awarded one due to the level of competition, or were awarded fewer new matter starts than they bid for. Letters have been sent to those providers affected by this.

In other areas we will be using the rules for supplementary new matter starts which are already in providers’ contracts. Information on those areas where we need to do some additional tender activity will appear on our website next week.

26 July 2011 – Allocation of further work previously allocated to Immigration Advisory Service (IAS)

We can now publish further information on how we intend to re-allocate unused new matter starts (NMS) that had previously been allocated to IAS prior to their going into administration following our previous update.

There are just over 8,000 NMS to be re-allocated in 15 Access Points across the country. These are new matters not yet opened and are therefore distinct from those clients whose case is being transferred to providers via the administrator (which also totals roughly 8,000 cases).

The 15 Access Points where work will be re-allocated are as follows:

Work will be re-allocated as follows:

  1. In some areas, the volume of NMS can be re-allocated between existing providers using the rules for awarding supplementary NMS already within the contract.  If providers find they are running short of new matter starts then they should contact their contract manager to discuss.

  2. In other areas, where the above method would not allow us to allocate sufficient volumes of work, we will follow the approach used to allocate work in the 2010 tender exercise. In these areas we will write to all providers who were eligible for a contract in that tender exercise but were either not awarded one owing to the level of competition, or were awarded fewer NMS than they bid for. They will need to confirm whether they wish to take on the NMS bid for and that they have the required capacity to take on this work. We will then allocate NMS in line with their ranked position as it was at the time of tender process in 2010.

  3. In a small number of areas where IAS carried out large amounts of work, we may need to conduct some additional tender activity. We will invite Expressions of Interest in these areas. Any Expressions of Interest will be published on this page of our website.

  4. We will be taking a similar approach in Immigration Removal Centres and will be contacting affected providers separately about this.

For further information on new matter starts in any of the affected access points then providers should discuss this in the first instance with their contract manager.

13 July 2011 - Expression of Interest for urgent immigration cases

You may be aware from recent press reports and updates on the LSC website that the Immigration Advisory Service (IAS) entered into administration on 8 July 2011.

At this time our primary concern is to ensure that those clients who require ongoing advice are able to access it with the minimum of disruption. Our priority is to deal with urgent cases i.e. unaccompanied minors and those clients with court hearings in the next 3 weeks.

To deal with these cases we are asking current immigration contract holders to express their interest in taking on this work. To express interest current contract holders will need to complete in full the ‘Expression of interest’ form and return to paul.benjamin@legalservices.gsi.gov.uk by noon Monday 18 July.

Our priority is to ensure clients in this situation have access to advice. If you require an increase in new matter starts in order to deal with clients under this process then you should approach your contract manager.

We will work through the forms and then ask the administrators to distribute accordingly but our aim is for them to distribute clients to other advice providers early next week.

15 June 2011 - Immigration Services in the Access Point of Plymouth

The recent interim tender exercise to award Immigration and Asylum work in the Plymouth Access Point has been cancelled pursuant to clause 10.28 of the Information for Applicants (IFA). This is as a result of the successful applicant being unable to satisfactorily verify their tender before the required start date for the new contract.  Owing to the time constraints (work was due to begin on the 1 June) and to ensure clients have continued access to advice in this area, the LSC has subsequently extended existing emergency arrangements until the end of the current schedule period. We plan to re-tender for services here in time for the start of the next schedule period – this will be advertised on the tender pages of our website.

18 February 2011 - Tender for Immigration Services in the Access Points of The City of Plymouth and The Kent Coast

About this tender
Due to the amount of interest received from the Expressions of Interest notices we are inviting interested parties to tender for civil contracts in the Immigration category of law in the Access Points of

The tender opened on 18 February 2011 and will close at 12 noon on 18 March 2011.  The new contracts go live on 1 June 2011.  An information for Applicants document and accompanying annexes can be found in the documents section of this page.

The period in which to submit any questions with regards to this tender exercise has now closed.  A list of Frequently Asked Questions is in the documents section of this page.

Interim arrangements
Immigration Services in these Access Points will be delivered under interim emergency arrangements to allow clients to access advice while this work is retendered and until the new contracts start on 1 June 2011.  Details of these arrangements are set out below:

 City of Plymouth  The Kent Coast
 From Tuesday 15 February 2011  From Monday 14 February 2011
 Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 10am to 5pm  Call for appointments - 0207 428 9600
 Plymouth & Devon Racial Equality Council  or contact Migrant Helpline
 3rd Floor Prideaux Court  Charlton House
 Palace St  Dour Street
 Plymouth  Dover
 PL1 2AY  CT16 1AT

17 January 2011 - The LSC has now let contracts to providers which allow them to conduct onsite surgery and/or Fast Track Scheme work at Immigration Removal Centres.  A list of organisations that have been awarded this work is available to download from the Documents panel.

22 December 2010 - Notices re: Expressions of Interest - The Kent Coast Access Point, South East Procurement Area and The City of Plymouth Access Point, South West Procurement Area

We have today published notices and forms relating to expressions of interest to deliver Immigration and Asylum services in the above Access Points/Procurement Areas. These notices are available in the documents panel on the right hand side of this page.  Please note that the deadline for responses is 4pm on Monday 10 January 2011.

17 December 2010 – Publication of outcome of tender process
Outcomes of the Immigration tender process can be found in the related documents section on this page. This consists of two documents – one listing the results in London and another listing the outcomes in all Procurement Areas outside of London.

Please note that contract validation is still ongoing and a number of contracts are yet to be issued, therefore these lists are subject to change.

Mainstream services

The deadline for submitting tenders to deliver Immigration services from offices across England and Wales has closed. The deadline was 12 noon on Thursday 28 January 2010.

Tenders have been assessed and the outcomes communicated via the message boards in the eTendering portal. Latest timetables are set out on the Civil Contracts for 2010 page.

Services at Immigration Removal Centres

The deadline for submitting tenders to deliver Publicly Funded Immigration Services at Immigration Removal Centres has now closed. The deadline was 12 noon on 5 February 2010.

We would like to thank all those organisations who submitted tenders. Tenders are now being assessed and the outcomes will be communicated via the message boards in the eTendering portal. Latest timetables are set out on the Civil Contracts for 2010 page.

Information for Applicants

The Information for Applicants (IFA) documents in the Documents panel on the right had side of this page sets out all the information, rules and Conditions of Tender which apply to these Invitations to Tender. 

Submitting a tender

All tenders must be submitted through the eTendering system, which can be accessed by clicking eTendering portal. You can also access guidance here on how to use the eTendering system in the ‘Technical Support and Guidance’ section.

Procurement plan

Some background information is available in the updated procurement plan for Immigration which can be downloaded from the Documents panel on the right hand side of this page.

The Immigration Procurement Plan has been updated to reflect:
1. changes to New Matter Starts (NMS) for Service Specification A  in London
2. different presence requirements for immigration services in Devon
3. integration of the Invitation to Tender (ITT) for services in North East Wales into ITTs for Midlands and East of England, North West England and Wales Immigration Procurement Areas.

Background information on policy is available in our response to consultation, on our consultation pages.

 

Last updated: 10 February 2012

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