JB 04/14 — HARWELL — Management and Operation of the NDA Southern Archive.

Descriptions

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) is responsible under the Energy Act 2004, for a wide selection of industry wide public records, a significant number of which are located in a managed archive on a Nuclear Licensed site at Harwell, Oxfordshire, and are subject to the requirements of the Public Records Act, the Freedom of Information Act, the Data Protection Act, ISO15489-1:2001 (or equivalent) and ISO 9001:2008 (or equivalent). The Archive was designed to meet BS 5454:2000 (now replaced by PD 5454:2012).The NDA wish to appoint a Contractor to manage this archive (and any new records issued for archiving),and have instructed Research Sites Restoration Ltd (RSRL) to carry out this procurement and implement and manage the subsequent contract. The resulting contract for the records and archive management will be placed by RSRL.The archive contains classified information and the successful Contractor will be required to provide any such information as may be required by UK security authorities. Furthermore, any individuals who will work at the facility or who will have access to classified information associated with this contract, will be required to submit to vetting by UK authorities and be successfully granted the appropriate vetting status. The successful contractor must be able to demonstrate the ability to work broadly in line with the standards required by ISO 27001 (or equivalent) especially the implementation of an information risk management process.On completion of this contract it is intended that the records and ongoing provision of the service will be transferred to the new National Nuclear Archive (NNA) when this becomes available. The NNA is currently planned for construction and could be available from 2017. This date however may be subject to change. The duration of the contract will be for a fixed period of two years with an option for RSRL to extend the duration at their option by up to a further 3 years. Such extension(s) to be entirely at the discretion of RSRL and in such periods as determined by RSRL, provided the total duration does not exceed 5 years. RSRL also reserve the right to reduce or omit this option to extend in any subsequent contract arising from this procurement to match the anticipated availability of the NNA at the time of contract award.The service will be provided from existing premises at the Harwell Site.The successful contractor must be able to demonstrate the ability to undertake the management and daily operations of such an archive facility, to the required statutory requirements and quality and security standards.The service is currently provided by a records management contractor, supported by a small amount of contracted personnel and it is anticipated that the provisions of the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations (TUPE) will apply.The service required is to manage and improve the existing archive, to ensure that it is kept in a safe condition, and to develop the accuracy of indexing for both new and existing records. Procedures are to be reviewed for adequacy, improved as necessary and subsequently maintained by the service provider to ensure that records are managed effectively and retrieved, re-archived, transferred to The National Archive (TNA) or disposed of as necessary, in compliance with the Public Records Act and all other statutory and regulatory requirements. The archive is to be prepared ready for transfer to the NNA such that it is in a condition (complete with supporting information) to allow continued access to, and effective management of, the records for potentially hundreds of years. Indicative services required include (but are not limited to):-1) Management of the Archive which consists primarily of approximately 9,700 linear metres of physical records which include a collection of around 700 linear metres of hard copy film/photographic media as well as thousands of digitally stored documents and images.2) Liaison with The National Archive (TNA) and any consequent records management and administration task to meet Public Records statutory and regulatory compliance requirements, including the processing of Lord Chancellor's Instrument applications and referrals on behalf of the NDA.3) Arranging for and managing support from two existing specialist subcontractors.4) Provision of records management services including advice and guidance on best practice for record-keeping and Public Records compliance in addition to accession, retention, storage, search and retrieval, loan, review, disposition and destruction (including certificated confidential) of NDA archived records in the collection. These services are to be provided at RSRL's sites at Harwell in Oxfordshire and Winfrith in Dorset, with the vast majority of work being at Harwell and only a very small proportion being required at Winfrith.5) Management of the existing premises and monitoring the condition of the facility.6) Task management and records location and condition management.7) Management of archives and new records for any external organisations whose records are contained within the existing archive, and for arranging invoices for these services on behalf of the NDA.8) Provision of e-records management services via EDRMS, including acting as the Intelligent Customer for EDRMS provision of archive services to external customers.9) Audit of the archive and the index and improvement in accuracy of indexing for both new and existing records in preparation for transfer to the NNA.10) Reviewing, sorting and re-boxing records and scanning degraded records.11) Review and progressive transfer of obsolescent film/video media to prevailing industry standard formats.12) Review of existing standard operating procedures for adequacy and implementation of improvements where appropriate.13) Provision of regular reports regarding the services provided.14) Maintenance of the Image Resources archive to 'Place of Deposit' status in accordance with the TNA's Standard for Record Repositories (see http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/information-management/standard2005.pdf).