BLC0224 - Covert Management Systems - Market Engagement

BlueLight Commercial are issuing this Preliminary Market Engagement Notice as an invitation to our market engagement event to provide interested suppliers with an overview of our upcoming requirement for Covert Management Systems which will be used by UK law enforcement agencies for the management of covert operations and associated activities.

BlueLight Commercial work in collaboration with blue light organisations to maximise commercial benefit to UK emergency services. A number of covert tactics are available to law enforcement agencies in the UK to enable them to prevent and detect crime or disorder and maintain public safety. This is a highly regulated activity, with organisations making use of undercover tactics, covert human intelligence sources and protected persons management. Law enforcement agencies require specialised systems to allow them to effectively manage any covert operations, ensuring appropriate authority is granted and a clear audit trail is available.

BlueLight Commercial therefore invites interested suppliers to attend a market engagement session on Thursday 29th May 2025 at 3pm. During the session we will provide an overview of the current landscape and our requirements for a multi supplier framework for the provision of these systems.

Following this initial market engagement session, BlueLight Commercial intends to hold one-to-one meetings (week commencing 2nd June 2025) with suppliers to inform our requirements and to gain a better understanding of the capabilities in the marketplace. Depending on the level of interest, BlueLight Commercial reserves the right to restrict these meetings to those suppliers who can provide a Commercial-off-the Shelf (COTS) Covert Management System which can be hosted on-premise or within the cloud. The system must meet the following minimum capabilities:

• Core Module – end-to-end planning, authorisation, risk management, product handling and oversight of covert operations,
• Prison Surveillance – enabling request and retrieval of material held in the prison network,
• Protected Person Management – for the management of individuals under protection e.g. witnesses, judges, jurors, officers and family members,
• Surveillance Operations Management,
• Undercover Operations Management
• Covert Human Intelligence Source (CHIS) handling.

If you have any questions, please contact the BlueLight Commercial ICT Team at [email protected]. It is important to note that this notice is not a call for competition and as such potential providers will need to express interest in any future tender opportunity once a contract notice is published in Find a Tender Service (FTS). This preliminary market engagement note is not a pre-qualification questionnaire and is not part of any pre-qualification or selection process and is intended as an awareness, communication, and information gathering exercise only to help inform a subsequent procurement exercise.