DfI - Provision of Courses for Drink Drive Offenders

Drink drive courses are currently used as part of a sentencing option in courts. Where an offender is disqualified for 12 months or more in respect of an alcohol-related driving offence, the court must (unless for special reasons it thinks it would be inappropriate to do so) order that the period of disqualification be reduced if the offender satisfactorily completes an approved Course for Drink Drive Offenders (CDDO/the course). The Department for Infrastructure (DfI) wishes to appoint a Contractor (i.e. a course provider) to provide courses for drink drive offenders from 1st October 2024.

Drink drive courses are currently used as part of a sentencing option in courts. Where an offender is disqualified for 12 months or more in respect of an alcohol-related driving offence, the court must (unless for special reasons it thinks it would be inappropriate to do so) order that the period of disqualification be reduced if the offender satisfactorily completes an approved Course for Drink Drive Offenders (CDDO/the course). The Department for Infrastructure (DfI) wishes to appoint a Contractor (i.e. a course provider) to provide courses for drink drive offenders from 1st October 2024. Additional information: The figure indicated in Section II 1.5 represents an estimated contract value. This value reflects the potential scale of the contract, however, neither CPD nor the Authority can provide any guarantee as to the level of business under this contract. The Contracting Authority does not bind itself to accept the lowest or any tender. Economic Operators remain responsible for all costs and expenses incurred by them or by any third party acting under instructions from the Economic Operator in connection with taking part in this procurement process regardless of whether such costs arise as a consequence, directly or indirectly of any amendments made to the procurement documents by the Contracting Authority at any time. No legally binding contract shall arise (and an Economic Operator shall have no legitimate expectation that a contract will be entered into) until such time as entry into the Contract has been confirmed by the Contracting Authority. Economic Operators should note that all dates, time periods and figures in relation to values and volumes specified in this notice and the procurement documents are approximate only and the Contracting Authority reserves the right to change any or all of them. The successful contractor’s performance on the contract will be regularly monitored. Contractors not delivering on contract requirements is a serious matter. It means the public purse is not getting what it is paying for. If a contractor fails to reach satisfactory levels of contract performance they will be given a specified time to improve. If, after the specified time, they still fail to reach satisfactory levels of contract performance, the matter will be escalated to senior management in CPD for further action. If this occurs and their performance still does not improve to satisfactory levels within the specified period, it may be regarded as an act of grave professional misconduct and they may be issued with a Notice of Unsatisfactory Performance and the contract may be terminated. The issue of a Notice of unsatisfactory Performance will result in the contractor being excluded from all procurement competitions being undertaken by Centres of Procurement Expertise on behalf of bodies covered by the Northern Ireland Procurement Policy for a period of twelve months from the date of issue of the Notice.