Procurement Profile: Ministry of Justice

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is responsible for the UK's courts, prisons and probation services, aiming to bring "the principles of justice to life for everyone in society".

To help fulfil its responsibilities, the MoJ has awarded over £14 billion to private suppliers since January 2016, making it the 6th largest public sector buyer by total contract award value.

Using our market intelligence platform, this buyer profile digs into these contract awards - and much more - to reveal rich insights into the MoJ's procurement characteristics. With this hard data behind you, you'll better be able to understand, engage with and pitch to this procurement giant.

Skip ahead to read about the MoJ's:

• Spend

• Contracts

• Expiring Contracts

• Suppliers

• Sector Case-Studies (IT & Consulting)

• Frameworks

Find our other Procurement Profiles here:

• Department for Work and Pensions

• Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy

• Department of Health and Social Care

• Ministry of Defence

• Home Office

• Department for Transport

From January 2016 - September 2020,* The MoJ - alongside its arms-length bodies - has spent nearly £22.2 billion with private suppliers, covering over 130,000 transactions.

The above analysis indicates that MoJ spend - both directly and indirectly via its arms-length bodies - has steadily risen since 2016.

Across this period, the MoJ's - including its arms-length bodies' - largest suppliers by total spend were:

* This date range was used on account of unavailable spend data for Q4 2020 - Q4 2021.

From January 2016 - December 2021, the MoJ awarded at least 2,360 contracts to 860 suppliers, with a combined total award value of £14.5 billion.

As the above analysis indicates, both the total volume and value of MoJ contract awards has steadily increased since 2016, rising from £1bn to £2.5bn across the period.

Total contract award value spiked in 2019 to £5.6bn alongside a number of large awards, including Prisoner Escort & Custody Services (Generation 4) - Lot South and North, valued at £752m and £632m, and awarded to Serco Ltd and GEO Amey Pecs Ltd respectively.

Over this period, the MoJ's largest contract awards have included:

Tussell's platform identified 357 likely-to-be-renewed contracts - with a total award value of £4.04 billion - that are due to expire from 2023 - 2025.*

The spike in upcoming renewal value in January 2024 comes from the expiration of 'Call Off Contract from Public Sector Resourcing' - to provide "a fully managed end-to-end service model through which hiring managers can access their contingent worker requirements" - which is valued at £900m.

Notably, 238 of these contracts - or 2/3rds - were call-offs from a framework, valued at £2.94bn. This suggests that if you're looking to do more business with the MoJ, it's worth getting onto - or remaining on - their most utilised frameworks.

The largest of these contracts - that were not call-offs - include: 

* "likely-to-be-renewed" is defined as 'services' and 'supplies' contracts

Since 2016, the MoJ has awarded contracts to at least 860 suppliers.*

The MoJ's top suppliers - by total contract award value - include:

The suppliers with whom the MoJ awards contracts most frequently includes Currie & Brown UK Ltd (66 contract awards, valued at £2.87m), WT Partnership (65 contract awards, valued at £10.2m), Mott Macdonald Ltd (61 contract awards, valued at £7.21m), Peopleplus Group Ltd (49 contract awards, valued at £115m) and LTE Group Ltd (37 contract awards, valued at £281m).

* This figure includes subsidiaries.

Below is a breakdown of the MoJ's IT and consultancy contract awards from January 2016 - December 2021. This analysis was conducted using CPV codes, meaning the data may include some anomalous results.

IT and Software (CPV: 48000000, 72000000, 42960000)

Since 2016, the MoJ has awarded approximately 429 IT and software-related contract awards, at a value of £1.3bn.*

The total value of such contracts has fluctuated over the past half-decade, while their total volume has gradually increased after a sharp drop in 2018.

The largest suppliers in this sector - by total contract award value - includes CGI IT UK Ltd (£190m), Trustmarque Solutions Ltd (£78.8m), Atos IT Services UK Ltd (£72.2m), Sopra Steria Ltd (£62.2m) and Solirius (£57.1m).

The largest contracts in this period included:

* This search excluded the term "translation"

Marketing, Recruitment, Consultancy (CPV: 79000000)

Since 2016, the MoJ has awarded approximately 218 contracts relating to marketing, recruitment and consultancy, valued at £1.52bn.*

The value of such contract awards peaked in 2018 due to a £900m 'Call Off Contract from Public Sector Resourcing' to Alexander Mann Solutions Ltd.

Excluding this contract, the total annual value of these contracts awarded has declined across the period, despite a steady rise in their volume.

The largest suppliers in this sector - by total contract award value - include Alexander Mann Solutions Ltd (£900m), Thebigword Ltd (£219m), Clarion UK Ltd (£77.5m), The Language Shop Ltd (£75.5m) and PWC LLP (£30.2m)

The largest contracts - excluding 'Call Off Contract from PSR' - in this period included:

* This search excluded the term "facilities management" and "hardware".

Of the 2,360 contracts awarded by the MoJ since January 2016, 885 - or just over 1/3rd - were call-offs from a framework.

Using Tussell's frameworks analytics, we can see that the total value of these call-offs sat at approximately £4.25bn and spanned 75 frameworks.

By value of identified call-offs, the MoJ's most valuable frameworks are Public Sector Resourcing Award (£900m), Prison Education Framework (£508m), Facilities Management Marketplace (£488m), Facilities Management Services (£314m) and Framework Agreement for Prison Operator Services (£290m).

By count of identified call-offs, the MoJ's most utilised frameworks are Prison Education Framework (422 identified call-offs), Probation Services Dynamic Framework (110 identified call-offs), Provision for HMPPS Prisoner, Family and Significant other Support Services (54 identified call-offs), G-Cloud 11 (41 identified call-offs) and G-Cloud Services (28 call-offs).

Across this period, the MoJ has operated 29 of its own frameworks, calling-off 630 contracts across them at a value of £1.09bn. This means that though a good proportion of the contracts called-off by the MoJ originate from their own frameworks, a larger proportion lies outside them.

*

The MoJ spends billions of pounds every year with private sector suppliers: getting to grips with their procurement behaviour is key to unlocking more business with them.

This analysis only covers the surface of what Tussell's aggregated data platform can tell you about the public sector. With Tussell, you can analyse spend, contract awards, favoured frameworks and more across the public sector, helping you make more informed decisions and strategies when selling to the public sector.

Book a demo with our team to see how Tussell can unlock public sector insights for your business.

Find our other Procurement Profiles here:

• Department for Work and Pensions

• Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy

• Department of Health and Social Care

• Ministry of Defence

• Home Office

• Department for Transport