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Yes, indeed.
We subscribe to supply2gov (source, Patrick Towell, formerly of Simulacra), and I’m the lucky one to get the daily information on smallish government contracts out to tender. Sometimes I skip it – we have so little time that tendering to strangers feels like an impossible uphill struggle, even when we really want the work. I once did a pqq (Pre Qualifying Questionnaire) for the National Audit Office though and we got quite seriously bounced in one way (it’s very hard to answer health & safety and staff turnover questions when you have no office and no staff, as such). But it did lead a very nice lady to ring up and invite us in and give us a chance to air ourselves in a way which they clearly found useful. One other such encounter with the modernisation lead in a local authority who shall remain nameless led him apparently to say ‘What Sparknow does is unbelievably tremendous. So tremendous that we can’t do it here, but it does make me realise the scale of our task, I’d better go and hire Deloitte’. I approximate, but not as much as I’d like to be. So frustrating.
Anyway, on the days (2/5) when I scroll through the supply2gov contracts I’m always pleased I have. Take a selection from today’s Low Value Contracts:
1. School Transport Services
2. UK-LANCASTER: Visitors Centre Service
3. UK-Salisbury: Traffic Speed Indicator
4. Vehicle Escort Training
5. Venue Required for Open House Event
6. Roadworks
8. Mastic Sealant Works
9. UK-Telford: Various Special-Purpose Mobile Containers
12. Forestry Services
14. UK-Paisley: Linwood Sports Complex replacement synthetic grass
19. Training for BTEC Maintenance Management in a Custodial Environment
21. UK-Edinburgh: GYLEMUIR PRIMARY SCHOOL ROOFING AND WINDOW REFURBISHMENT
24. Supply and Application of Road Markings
32. Body Worn Video Devices
43. UK-Doncaster: Consultancy - Personality Disorder Strategy
46. Landfill Gas Utilisation
47. Research Services
51. Environmental Nanoscience Facility
52. Staff Uniforms
72. Hidden Harm - Mapping of Maternity Care Pathways for Pregnant Drug & (Problematic) Alcohol Users
80. Mitchell Memorial Theatre ArchitectI notice in today’s list a lot of School Transport, which is presumably a sign that it’s the end of the school year. Several sets of road markings. Quite a bit of stuff to do with security too. And Body Worn Video Devices. Which of course must be headcams. And this is the beautiful part, because of course I googled BWVD’s (as surely they are called by the Police themselves) to find out from the Home Office that
Body-worn video devices or head cameras are video recording devices with the ability to record both images and sound that can be worn by police officers.
In fact the only ones I’ve really come across so far are the ones the BBC persuaded people like stilt-walkers and trapeze artists to use at Glastonbury. This leads me to speculate on the inside/outside knowledge transfer that is so useful. Parkour taught by the likes of EZ and Livewire to the army. That kind of thing.
Brickhouse Security offers Body Worn Video Devices (aka surveillance cameras on their website, so no beating about the bush there) as ‘James Bond ideas for him’. I especially like the camcorder spy sunglasses which allow you to ‘channel your inner Bond’ – possibly not something the Hampshire Constabulary are that keen to encourage in the ordinary police officer. Personally, having seen Casino Royale, I think I’d be better off buying him some freerunning from Livewire. Much sexier, and healthier all round.
On a more serious note, and based on no more than a cursory look, I’d say that the general tenor of the Home Office and various other police websites, like Hampshire Constabulary, sound quite defensive about the evidential nature of BWVD’s and strive hard to make it seem fair, reasonable and not part of an irreversible move to a surveillance society. Hmmmm.
In any case, I shall do the daily trawl, count it as part of my general horizon scanning activity, and see where it leads me. When I’ve more time, I might look into the pilots in a bit more detail. It’s always useful to wander into foreign territory and see where it takes you. In this case I feel a bit queasy though, perhaps in part because my daughter happens to have been in the same primary school class as one of the young people caught up in this wave of knife crime in London. I won’t say more, except to say the shock of knowing one of those stories, in all it’s mess, complexity and destruction of families and lives, in a bit more detail, leads me to extra caution before I’d commit myself to have a view of any kind on what needs to happen next there. But something must. I hope not too many BWVD’s are involved though.