Purpose

To procure for an elections software system to be used for both elections and electoral registration.

Decision

For the reasons set out in this report, the Corporate Director has decided to:

(a)  Award this contract to FCS Software Solutions for a duration of three years with an option to extend by one year at an estimated value of £125,000 excluding VAT (for 3 years). This figure excludes the utilisation of any extension which will be at an additional cost of £40,000 (excluding VAT) for 12 months, should the council choose to extend. If the extension is to be taken, then the total cost would be £165,000 (excluding VAT).

Alternative options considered

Do nothing – The requirement to have a software supplier in place in order that the RO and ERO can carry out their statutory functions is absolute and necessary.   Without a dedicated electoral software supplier, would mean that the ERO and RO would be unable to carry out their legislative duties.  Therefore, to do nothing simply isn't an option for the above reasons.

In house provision – While ICT are able to assist with some smaller aspects of this process, particularly at the election count, due to the extensive legislative requirements, complexities in the registration and voting process and the requirement to link into the government portal, this isn’t an option that ICT are able to do.

The Electoral Registration Officer and Returning Officer have a Legal requirement to carry out hundreds of legal and statutory functions, and this can only be done by having a specialised elections software supplier in place.  There are only a small number of software suppliers that have the capacity to ensure the RO and ERO are able to do this, and as such, there are no other options available, other than to carry out a full procurement exercise for this collaborative contract.