Passionate about people’s resilience
Procurement at the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) also oversees the management of the private prisons estate and is involved in a major capital investment programme. “We’re currently in the process of building a series of large-scale prisons,” says Hooper. “Each one is about £300-500 million. As part of that, we’ve been quite transformative in adopting modern methods of construction and design for manufactured assembly.” A Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA) approach used to build a new resettlement prison in Wellingborough incorporates repeatable, standardised components and assemblies across its 13 buildings. Around 80% has been standardised, which means the component assemblies designed for Wellingborough can and will be used on subsequent MoJ prison projects, leveraging economies of scale for the programme. SRM and segmentation MoJ suppliers are tiered into gold, silver, and bronze. Cost and risk are considered as part of that process with any contract critical to the delivery of justice, classed as gold. A total of 147 are designated this status and represent the biggest chunk of MoJ expenditure. The ministry is part of a first wave of UK government departments to participate in the Strategic Supplier Relationship Management (SSRM) initiative, a Cabinet Office drive, supported by State of Flux, to improve
SRM across central government. It is designed to support departments through the process of setting up effective SRM by first understanding their current practice and level of maturity; building additional capability where required; and then rolling it out with a number of key suppliers. The MoJ supports the Cabinet Office’s Strategic SRM programme for pan- government relationships in excess of £100m per annum, working with Crown Representatives to find incremental value; drive innovation; and reduce inherent risk. Within MoJ itself, Hooper says a number of ‘senior business owners’ are responsible for the operational parts of particular contracts. Procurement has worked with them individually so far and would like to bring them together. It also aims to have an integrated approach to SRM/contract management to support that group. “Is what we’re doing on SRM fully- formed and fully-fledged? No, we are still on an evolutionary journey.” He says for the past 18 months they have been developing tools to start to give them visibility and enable the senior business owners to work with the commercial teams to really deliver on the contracts. Some notable improvements have already been achieved. Hooper says they are particularly proud of work done with construction supplier Kier on new build resettlement prison Five Wells. Not only did it deploy the standardised
“Our resilience has a lot to do with staff, I’m really proud of what we’ve done in this space.” design, which can now be replicated, it also embedded social value. Elements include ex-offenders working on-site as part of a rehabilitation programme; community investment days; as well as integrating low-carbon concrete manufacturing within the supply chain for off-site manufacture. “We’ve also done lots of things around supporting local economic growth and been able to report on successes in such a meaningful way that we’ve increased targets for the next prison builds,” he says. Upcoming challenges Among supply base challenges he foresees for the next 12-24 months are the impact of inflation; and the availability of raw materials and its knock-on effect to finished goods. He said they will use a number of levers to tackle these including taking a different approach to managing cost containment; offsetting some price rises through innovation; reducing demand where it can; and considering gain-share arrangements with some providers. →
Standardised prison design and added social value are among the successes achieved through SRM by an ‘amazing team’
The Ministry of Justice is a UK government department responsible for supporting the delivery of the nation’s justice process – from arrest to court, prison and probation. It works with colleagues in the Attorney General’s office and the Crown Prosecution Service, among others, and fulfils two roles. It reports in to the Secretary of State, who is responsible for justice at Cabinet Office level; but who is also the Lord Chancellor, responsible for the provision, protection and independence of the legal services sector in the UK. Chief Commercial Officer Barry Hooper is responsible for around £7bn of third party spend, making the MoJ one of the most heavily
outsourced state departments. His team is currently managing around 700 active projects. Spend spans about 1,600 live contracts with a total contracted value of around £29bn. The department sources capital projects, goods and a large number of services. Among these are prisoner escort and transport; rehabilitation; education; healthcare; dentistry; translation and transcription and more. This is in addition to fundamental corporate services including IT infrastructure and support; travel and accommodation; and consultancy. Hooper and his department also look after fleet management and the National Logistics Network, which supplies materials, both in and out of the prisons’ network.
Barry’s top risk tip
“Whatever role you are in, consider how you service governance within your organisation, and how you raise the profile of the issues you are dealing with. Think about it through the lens of what data is available and how that can inform your position. Work with others to translate it into any risks you are managing or that your organisation needs to be aware of.”
Barry Hooper, Chief Commercial Officer
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