The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs Defra) has gone out to tender with a contract for a Geospatial Enabling Programme Delivery Partner with a potential total estimated value of up to £13.48 million.

Geospatial (land) data is a critical asset for Defra as it provides insight into land use to inform policy decisions that can be distributed effectively to maximize economic growth whilst supporting nature recovery.

Defra says its Geospatial Enabling Programme can enable delivery of better policy making to deliver its priorities by resolving issues within the geospatial data and developing the spatial targeting capability.

However, a lack of accurate geospatial data has meant that historically multiple versions of the same area of land exist across Defra group and there are areas of rural land not currently captured in Defra mapping systems.

According to Defra, this inhibits effective policy development through spatial targeting due to differing views of the geometry and land use. It also translates into a poor end user experience, where farmers are asked repeatedly to input the same information into different systems belonging to the Defra group.

The Geospatial Enabling Programme are targeting an Industry Partner who can deliver against the following priorities:

• Develop prototypes and design the following based on user/business requirements from across Defra and 6 ALBs:
• An authoritative source of land use and boundary map for rural England (common land base map (master reference layer) generated from Defra’s insights and other data products
• Providing a common map of land to facilitate collaboration
• Provide accurate data that can be exploited by innovative technology, for example drone surveillance and AI
• Support streamlining of grants processes, by providing improved access to land use data for spatial targeting of subsidies, grants and financial incentives more efficiently

The Partner will also be required to integrate existing foundational land datasets for England derived from ALBs and 3rd parties into one data product (Defra Land Model) in order to:

• prevent duplication and maximize investment in licensing
• support data sharing across Defra Group for the effective delivery of outcomes
• reduce data debt across the Defra Group that will ensure policy and delivery teams are using consistent data to drive decisions, thereby reducing the impact of conflicting policy interventions
• provide accessibility to foundational land datasets for all Defra and the 6 ALBs
• develop and deliver a common geospatial data standard framework to enable sharing of data across Defra Group and externally
• define a service model which will focus on data management, data governance of the master reference layer and Defra land model

Defra is now conducting a Further Competition under the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) Space-Enabled and Geospatial Services Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) (reference RM6235) for a Delivery Partner to support the Geospatial Enabling Programme. Suppliers who join the DPS after Thursday 17th July will not be added to it_

The contract term will consist of an initial 6 month term, with the option to extend for a further 4 years in 3+1 increments - the optional years can be executed in smaller increments if required. These will be to complete Optional Statements of Work described in the tender pack which will be called off if required (subject to further approvals).

The budget for the initial term (six (6) months) is a total of £1.45 million (ex VAT) with the total contract value expected to be up to an estimated total cost of £13.45 million (ex VAT) during the overall maximum 4-year and six month term, The total contract value is an estimate only for resourcing costs and does not include costs for technology or digitising of data.ons of the staff assigned to performing the contract

The procurement process is being conducted via the Crown Commercial Service eSourcing tool for the public sector where interested suppliers not already on the Dynamic Purchasing System who want to participate can also register.

The tender clarification period closes at 3.00 pm on 17th July by which time interested suppliers who are not already on the DPS who want to participate must have registered on the system. The tender documents are available via https://crowncommercialservice.bravosolution.co.uk/web/login.html   The ITT reference number is: itt_84717. However, suppliers who join the DPS after Thursday 17th July will not be added to itt_84717

The time limit for receipt of tenders or requests to participate is 5:00pm on 30 July 2025.

Interested suppliers who are not on the DPS who want to participate can also visit https://www.crowncommercial.gov.uk/agreements/RM6235 for further details about the Space-Enabled and Geospatial Services procurement.

The buyer address at https://defra-family.force.com/s/Welcome will be required for contract management.