Advice, Issue Reporting & Eligibility (AIRE) Services

UK Visas and Immigration plan to procure a consolidated service that: • provides advice to asylum seekers, • provides asylum seekers with the ability to report issues; and • provides assistance to asylum seekers to complete an application form to confirm their eligibility for support. Local capacity to support asylum applicants, familiarity with community cohesion and proximity to local voluntary and social groups will be key.

The OJEU Contract Notice is expected to be published in the Spring/Early Summer of 2018. Further information and relevant instructions will be provided at that point.

A copy of the Prior Information Notice (2018/S 009-015919) is attached to this publication. Additional information: The Asylum Accommodation and Support Transformation (AAST) project has been established to design, develop and procure the future model for asylum accommodation and support, replacing the existing arrangements when they expire.

It is the AAST team's aim to implement a model which creates an efficient and high quality overall asylum accommodation and support system which works for all parties, utilising lessons learnt and previous methods of service provision and stakeholder views to influence design. The project is aiming to start procurement of the AIRE services in the spring of 2018 with contract award by the Spring of 2019.

This will allow for a 6 months transition period with services fully operational by October 2019. The estimated annual value of the contract will be £10-20 million.

The initial contract period is likely to be 4 years with options to extend for up to a total of 10 years. A final position on duration to be determined and advised in the Contract Notice.

An OJEU contract notice will be published in due course. The same opportunity will also be published on Contract Finder.

UKVI is committed to ensuring fairness, openness and transparency; and to follow EU procurement regulations. This PIN does not constitute a call for competition to procure any services and UKVI is not bound to accept any proposal offered. Any procurement of any of the services in due course will be conducted strictly in accordance with the provisions of Public Contract Regulations 2015 (as amended).