Capita's Northern Ireland school IT deal swells to over half a billion after Fujitu exit
(2025/03/24)
- Reference: 1742811310
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/03/24/northern_ireland_capita/
- Source link:
A public body in Northern Ireland has granted Capita £208 million in additional contracts and extensions without competition after ditching a £485 million Fujitsu deal last November.
The new contracts – why no competition?
In a recently published [1]public procurement notice , Education Authority Northern Ireland (EANI) announced plans to modify its tech support and outsourcing contract with Capita to give it an additional two years to run until March 31, 2027, and increase the value of the contract by up to £175 million. The contract was originally set to end on March 31, 2025.
It said the modification was "due to unforeseen circumstances which a diligent authority could not have foreseen." It was "negotiated without a prior call for competition."
Meanwhile, [2]a separate notice adds £33 million to the Capita deal for managed Local Area Network services for post-primary and special schools in Northern Ireland and managed Wide Area Network Services for all Northern Ireland schools. The notice says this is a one-year extension, although adds that it is set to end on March 31, 2025.
The first notice says the contract had to be extended without competition because the "transition to a new managed service contract was expected to have completed by March 31 2025 but due to unforeseen circumstances the new contract awarded in December 2023 was terminated in November 2024 by mutual consent."
It continues: "Accordingly it is necessary to extend the contract and increase the contract value to ensure the continuation of existing managed service arrangements and functionality changes to meet schools' requirements whilst permitting time to transition to a new managed service contract."
It doesn't name the original vendor that Capita is taking over from in the contract, but in November 2024, [3]EANI ended a £485 million contract with Fujitsu when its involvement in the Post Office Horizon computer system scandal hit the mainstream media.
In December 2023, just weeks before Fujitsu indicated it would pause bidding for UK public sector work in light of the Post Office scandal – one of the UK's worst miscarriages of justice – [4]EANI handed Fujitsu the £485 million contract following a competition in which no other suppliers submitted final bids for the work .
The latest agreements from Education Authority Northern Ireland (EANI) could take the value awarded to Capita from £170 million in 2012 to potentially £754 million until 2027. Of that potential £754 million in contracts, The Reg estimates about £583 million in value may have been dished out to the outsourcing giant without market competition.
The most recent deal for LAN and WAN support [5]specifically mentions that the total value of the entire contract between Capita and EANI equates to £546 million. However, it does not say whether this accounts for a £175 million service award or the £33 million modifications. Another [6]notice back in 2024 also said the total value was £546 million, which suggests the latest two agreements are in addition to this, bringing the total value of the contract to around £754 million by 2027.
According to publicly available information, only the original £170 million award in 2012 was won after a competitive tender, meaning contracts to the value of £583 million may have been awarded without competition.
A timeline
2012: The outsourcing provider won a five-year contract in 2012 for £170 million.
2017: [7]In February of this year , £50 million was added for a two-year extension.
2019: Another three years were added in 2019 without competition.
2022 : Further modifications added two years without competition in March of this year. 2024 : In February 2024, £33 million was [8]added without external competition for another one-year extension.
2024: £546 million is given as the total value of the contract in February 2024, before the 2025 £33 million LAN/WAN deals or the £175 million tech support and outsourcing deals were added.
2025: The most recent arrangement for LAN and WAN support mentions that the total value of the contract after the £33 million modifications equates to [9]£546 million . However, it does not say whether this accounts for the £175 million service award.
Potentially, the total contract valued could be £754 million, depending on which publicly available figures are to be believed. Either way, this represents a substantial increase from the original £170 million undertaking, and EANI appears to have handed hundreds of millions of pounds to Capita without competition.
[10]Northern Ireland schools ditch £485M Fujitsu deal after less than a year
[11]Fujitsu wins spot on £600M framework after vowing to sit out public sector
[12]UK.gov to chuck up to £5B to gang of back office software vendors
[13]Capita wins uncontested extension to mega millions Northern Ireland Education contract
The Register asked EANI to comment.
The service contract notice says EANI plans a new procurement for an alternative provider to Capita. It expects 18-24 months will be needed to "procure and transition to a suitable new contract." After 13 years with Capita, we're sure that will fly by. ®
Get our [14]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/009957-2025
[2] https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/009955-2025
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/19/northern_ireland_schools_fujitsu/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/19/fujitsu_pauses_uk_public_sector_contracts
[5] https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/009955-2025?origin=SearchResults&p=2
[6] https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/006005-2024
[7] https://www.capita.com/news/northern-irish-education-authority-extends-schools-it-contract-capita
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/27/northern_ireland_education_capita_deal/
[9] https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/006005-2024
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/19/northern_ireland_schools_fujitsu/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/25/fujitsu_contract_win_horizon/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/26/ukgov_bak_office_tech/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/27/northern_ireland_education_capita_deal/
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
The new contracts – why no competition?
In a recently published [1]public procurement notice , Education Authority Northern Ireland (EANI) announced plans to modify its tech support and outsourcing contract with Capita to give it an additional two years to run until March 31, 2027, and increase the value of the contract by up to £175 million. The contract was originally set to end on March 31, 2025.
It said the modification was "due to unforeseen circumstances which a diligent authority could not have foreseen." It was "negotiated without a prior call for competition."
Meanwhile, [2]a separate notice adds £33 million to the Capita deal for managed Local Area Network services for post-primary and special schools in Northern Ireland and managed Wide Area Network Services for all Northern Ireland schools. The notice says this is a one-year extension, although adds that it is set to end on March 31, 2025.
The first notice says the contract had to be extended without competition because the "transition to a new managed service contract was expected to have completed by March 31 2025 but due to unforeseen circumstances the new contract awarded in December 2023 was terminated in November 2024 by mutual consent."
It continues: "Accordingly it is necessary to extend the contract and increase the contract value to ensure the continuation of existing managed service arrangements and functionality changes to meet schools' requirements whilst permitting time to transition to a new managed service contract."
It doesn't name the original vendor that Capita is taking over from in the contract, but in November 2024, [3]EANI ended a £485 million contract with Fujitsu when its involvement in the Post Office Horizon computer system scandal hit the mainstream media.
In December 2023, just weeks before Fujitsu indicated it would pause bidding for UK public sector work in light of the Post Office scandal – one of the UK's worst miscarriages of justice – [4]EANI handed Fujitsu the £485 million contract following a competition in which no other suppliers submitted final bids for the work .
The latest agreements from Education Authority Northern Ireland (EANI) could take the value awarded to Capita from £170 million in 2012 to potentially £754 million until 2027. Of that potential £754 million in contracts, The Reg estimates about £583 million in value may have been dished out to the outsourcing giant without market competition.
The most recent deal for LAN and WAN support [5]specifically mentions that the total value of the entire contract between Capita and EANI equates to £546 million. However, it does not say whether this accounts for a £175 million service award or the £33 million modifications. Another [6]notice back in 2024 also said the total value was £546 million, which suggests the latest two agreements are in addition to this, bringing the total value of the contract to around £754 million by 2027.
According to publicly available information, only the original £170 million award in 2012 was won after a competitive tender, meaning contracts to the value of £583 million may have been awarded without competition.
A timeline
2012: The outsourcing provider won a five-year contract in 2012 for £170 million.
2017: [7]In February of this year , £50 million was added for a two-year extension.
2019: Another three years were added in 2019 without competition.
2022 : Further modifications added two years without competition in March of this year. 2024 : In February 2024, £33 million was [8]added without external competition for another one-year extension.
2024: £546 million is given as the total value of the contract in February 2024, before the 2025 £33 million LAN/WAN deals or the £175 million tech support and outsourcing deals were added.
2025: The most recent arrangement for LAN and WAN support mentions that the total value of the contract after the £33 million modifications equates to [9]£546 million . However, it does not say whether this accounts for the £175 million service award.
Potentially, the total contract valued could be £754 million, depending on which publicly available figures are to be believed. Either way, this represents a substantial increase from the original £170 million undertaking, and EANI appears to have handed hundreds of millions of pounds to Capita without competition.
[10]Northern Ireland schools ditch £485M Fujitsu deal after less than a year
[11]Fujitsu wins spot on £600M framework after vowing to sit out public sector
[12]UK.gov to chuck up to £5B to gang of back office software vendors
[13]Capita wins uncontested extension to mega millions Northern Ireland Education contract
The Register asked EANI to comment.
The service contract notice says EANI plans a new procurement for an alternative provider to Capita. It expects 18-24 months will be needed to "procure and transition to a suitable new contract." After 13 years with Capita, we're sure that will fly by. ®
Get our [14]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/009957-2025
[2] https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/009955-2025
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/19/northern_ireland_schools_fujitsu/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/19/fujitsu_pauses_uk_public_sector_contracts
[5] https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/009955-2025?origin=SearchResults&p=2
[6] https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/006005-2024
[7] https://www.capita.com/news/northern-irish-education-authority-extends-schools-it-contract-capita
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/27/northern_ireland_education_capita_deal/
[9] https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/006005-2024
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/19/northern_ireland_schools_fujitsu/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/25/fujitsu_contract_win_horizon/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/26/ukgov_bak_office_tech/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/27/northern_ireland_education_capita_deal/
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Unforseen
Anonymous Coward
Lots of the above. Perhaps those involved should be unforseeninly fired as they could not see what was coming.
Unless you are using something that is dependent on a cloud service and thet gets pulled with no warning (and then, where was due diligence ?), I cannot see a lot of unforseen.... maybe a huge price hike by Oracle or VMWare, but that is just a cost and I cannot see that meaning you extend with whoever.
Here's a suggestion
Don't spend the next 2 years sorting out a contract for another leech to swoop in and rinse you of the best part of £1bn.
Hire a few good senior tech leaders to build up a function to take it all over internally. Pay solid wages for good people.
It will cost a fraction of what you've paid to Crapita, and will probably boost the local economy far better than would otherwise be the case.