HM Land Registry

HM Land Registry Digital Street - Research and Development

14 Incomplete applications

10 SME, 4 large

22 Completed applications

11 SME, 11 large

Published: Tuesday 1 May 2018
Deadline for asking questions: Tuesday 8 May 2018 at 11:59pm GMT
Closing date for applications: Tuesday 15 May 2018 at 11:59pm GMT

Overview

Summary of the work: A supplier to work with HM Land Registry to explore the art of the possible on our Digital Street R&D project, developing proof of concepts using key technologies like blockchain, distributed ledgers and smart contracts. Our goal - prove that we can make land registration and buy sell process easier.
Latest start date: Monday 6 August 2018
Expected contract length: Term to 29th March 2019 - option to extend to 2 year contract term - subject to approvals
Location: South West England
Organisation the work is for: HM Land Registry
Budget range: Max budget is £750,000
to end of March 2019
Max day rate of £1000, to include T&S

About the work

Why the work is being done: HM Land Registry (HMLR) has a vision to become the world’s leading land registry for speed, simplicity and an open approach to data. The current Business Strategy 2017-2022 sets out the steps to deliver this ambition over the next five years and a core part of the HMLR Business Strategy is Digital Street. We have an opportunity to be at the forefront of innovation by exploring how we can make land registration and conveyancing easier and how data/technology could revolutionise the process. We are expecting to deliver the second year of Research & Development (R&D) by end of March 2019.
Problem to be solved: Through R&D, Digital Street wants to prove that we can:

1. Improve the transparency of the property buy/sell process
2. Enable users to sign their agreements digitally
3. Deliver a digital transfer
4. Remove the duplication of ID verification from the buy/sell process
5. Prove how smart contracts can enable automation in the process such as movement of funds and update of the land register
6. Explore the capabilities of blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT)

Outcomes will include:
Recommendations and insights for HMLR, other government departments and wider industry
Proof of concepts that validate our findings
Who the users are and what they need to do: User groups of HM Land Registry's services include:

Citizens who require a better experience when buying/selling property

Solicitors / conveyancers / mortgage lenders must be able to transact using digital deeds and online services when acting on behalf of buyers and sellers in registering land interests

All users want assurance that the transaction is secure and that information can be accessed by trusted individuals

HMLR wants the register to be updated without the need for manual intervention when a change of ownership has happened.

Other government departments who might be involved or have an interest in the buy/sell process
Early market engagement: Pre-market engagement activity has been completed. A summary detailing this has been issued to all suppliers on the DOS2 (Outcomes) framework.
If you have not received a copy of the summary, please request a copy to be sent to you by contacting mariclare.richards@landregistry.gov.uk
Any work that’s already been done: Last year we completed our first year of R&D through Digital Street. We engaged with and worked alongside key players from the industry to explore the benefits of a fully digital land register. We did this by trying out different approaches to data and technology to create three proof of concepts (ideas) which were enabled by a fully digital land register and other useful property data. We gathered many valuable insights through Digital Street delivering some exciting concepts, confirming that there is more that we can learn in this space and that we should progress into another year of R&D.
Existing team: We have an in-house agile delivery team in place ready to work alongside a supplier. Current team includes:

Senior Product Manager

User Research

Solution Architect

Senior Software Engineer

Software Engineer

Service Designer

Delivery Lead

In addition we had Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) on hand to support the team (Lead Software Engineer, Test Manager, Legal/Fraud & Security SME's)
Current phase: Not applicable

Work setup

Address where the work will take place: Seaton Court, William Prance Road, Plymouth, PL6 5WS
Castle Wharf House 2 Canal Street, Nottingham NG1 7AU
Working arrangements: The Digital Street team is currently located over multiple locations, we expect any technical roles to be based in Plymouth with our internal technical experts. Other roles can be between Nottingham & Plymouth. The team will work primarily to agile ways of working but as Digital Street is R&D we will adapt our approach where necessary. The team will need to attend face to face agile ceremonies/team meetings/user workshops when required and we expect them to be on site for a minimum of 3 days a week
Security clearance: HM Land Registry requires all supplier staff to have baseline personnel security standard clearance. There may be a requirement for some of the work to require security clearance checks. This will be detailed in the statement of work.

Additional information

Additional terms and conditions: The standard DoS terms and conditions will apply. T&S will be paid according to the HMLR T&S policy. T&S will not be paid for travel to the "home" office which is Plymouth.

Skills and experience

Buyers will use the essential and nice-to-have skills and experience to help them evaluate suppliers’ technical competence.

Essential skills and experience: Demonstrable evidence of deep technical expertise in blockchain and cryptography (including digital signatures).

Demonstrable evidence of deep technical expertise in Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT)

Demonstrable evidence of deep technical expertise of smart contract solutions

Demonstrable evidence of using innovative technologies to solve problems

Demonstrable evidence of iteratively delivering digital services using agile development approaches and continuous delivery techniques

Demonstrable evidence of applying appropriate security controls and best practices

Demonstrable evidence of designing and delivering solutions on public cloud

Demonstrable evidence of having a capability to securely manage and configure cloud environments

Demonstrable evidence of building data specifications and understanding data lifecycle management, including information assurance levels.

emonstrable evidence of agile test automation/QA strategies and tools
Nice-to-have skills and experience: Experience of working successfully with UK Government

Experience of creating and implementing architectural patterns

Experience of delivering solutions using open source software

Experience of delivering solutions to open standards

Experience of working with data quality standards

Experience of working with spatial data and spatial database technologies

Experience of AI/Machine Learning methods and tools

Knowledge of Data Protection issues

Experience of integrating with ID verification solutions

Experience of designing scalable solutions

How suppliers will be evaluated

How many suppliers to evaluate

Proposal criteria

Approach to technical solution - Including but not limited to - How the technologies detailed in Stage 1 - Technical skills could be applied to meet this outcome.
Approach to innovation - Including but not limited to - How the supplier intends to deliver this as an R&D development environment?
Methodology approach
How the approach or solution meets user needs
How the approach or solution meets HMLR organisational goals
Estimated timeframes for the work
How they've identified risks and dependencies and offered approaches to manage them
Team structure and skills

Cultural fit criteria

Work as a team – Clearly communicate, collaborate, establish good working relationships, generate team spirit, working across multiple sites
Innovate – Act on initiative, drive improvements, balance risks
Build client capability –Encourage learning, share knowledge, address capability gaps, act on feedback, collaborating with client technical and user research staff continuously
Focus on delivery –Focus on goals, set stretching targets, take responsibility for delivery
Provide value for money –Cost awareness, forecast and monitor performance, identify and address inefficiency

Payment approach

Capped time and materials

Assessment methods

Written proposal
Case study
Work history
Reference
Presentation

Evaluation weighting

Technical competence

60%

Cultural fit

10%

Price

30%

Questions asked by suppliers

1. Can I ask how much flexibility there will be when it comes to team location? Mobilising DLT experts in London, South East and Bristol would be achievable. Spending three days a week in Plymouth will be a challenge. So we wanted to gauge how flexible you may be team location?: We would envisage that at the start of the contract there would be a need to be on site in Plymouth regularly to work with the team, get the set up correct and ensure team cadence and working practices are embedded. Once the builds and PoC’s are identified and the teams understand what needs to be delivered then the need to be in Plymouth regularly would be assessed at that time.
2. We note submission of evidence answers is Tuesday 12th May. What are the expected stages timeline for procurement between then and the expected start date of 6th August?: Submission of evidence answers - 15th May
Evaluation of Stage 1 suppliers and shortlisting - 16th -24th May
Shortlisted suppliers notified - Friday 25th May
Deadline for supplier response to Stage 2 - 15th June
Supplier presentations - w/c 25th June
Contract award - w/c 16th July
3. The price weighting of 30% is significant. In order to compare suppliers, how will price be evaluated?: The supplier will be asked to complete a pricing schedule detailing the proposed team, their day rates and anticipated utilisation. Price is scored based on how close each supplier’s quote is to the cheapest supplier’s quote.
4. The nature of these requirements would seem HM Land Registry require people with very specific skills, probably fitting to the ‘Set Strategy and Inspire’ SFIA level. The desired people are scarce UK-wide, attracting higher day-rates in the market. We believe asking for a team to be co-located in Plymouth at a maximum day rate of £1000 inc. T&S puts your project at risk of suppliers providing people at a lower level than requirements necessitate - inhibiting the project and value for money. Will you accept a proposal with higher daily rates, given compliance to the rest of your requirements?: Noted. The maximum average day rate across the team should not exceed £1000, the maximum day rate for an individual team member should not exceed £1370.
5. We note there has been a year of R&D work, has this output a plan for the next phase of R&D work? Such as additional resource expected, roles, numbers, and duration. If so, can this be shared with suppliers?: The year 2 work is a new piece of work, looking at further parts of the buy/sell process. The duration of the work is up to 31st March 2019, we have established an internal team and expect the supplier to suggest the additional roles/skills to add in order to deliver the outcome.
6. Can we ask what the budget of £750,000 has been roughly based on?: This has been based on the acknowledgement that an external partner is required to work with HMLR internal teams to bring in the required expertise and knowledge to help with the delivery of Year 2 - this is expected to last 7 months
7. Has the first year of R&D work output an idea of an MVP and the desired outputs of this?: No, but the first year did output ideas of what we could explore further which have been considered for the scope of year 2.
8. With regard to the question: "Demonstrable evidence of building data specifications and understanding data lifecycle management, including information assurance levels." Could you give an example of the context in which you intend this to be used as there are a number of lenses that could be used.: Data specifications are used to define data structures/interfaces between separate parties. Lifecycle management ensures data quality/integrity is maintained during collection, transmission and storage. Information assurance relates to understanding and aligning with data confidentiality, availability and integrity requirements throughout the lifecycle. These are all aspects for Enterprise Information Management.
9. What alternative solutions have you considered to blockchain?: HM Land Registry currently maintains a central database. Changes to the Land Register are controlled through trusted third parties agreeing to Terms and Conditions and using our web portal and API services. This phase of Digital Street includes exploring other paradigms.
10. What business networks are the Land Registry looking to create and who will use any blockchain solution?: We will be collaborating with key stakeholders from the buy/sell process to understand how a blockchain solution could be used across the process and the business networks that could be part of it.
11. What assets and transactions are the Land Registry looking to tokenise, implement and maintain via smart contracts?: This is what this phase of Digital Street will be exploring through user research and R&D.
12. From a block chain perspective are the Land Registry looking for public, private or hybrid solutions?: This phase of Digital Street is about exploring areas of improvement around land registration and understanding the capabilities of some of the technologies which may offer solutions. Part of this will be exploring the most appropriate visibility of any solution and what HM Land Registry’s role in any future solution might be.
13. Is it outside IR35?: As the Authority is contracting out the services to a third party and the workers do not personally provide their services to the Authority, IR35 does not apply in this instance.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/off-payroll-working-in-the-public-sector-reform-of-intermediaries-legislation
14. Can you please expand on the question 'evidence of experience of creating and implementing architectural patterns' - can you define what you mean by this?: Architectural patterns provide a mechanism for ensuring proposed designs align with industry reference architectures and best practice where appropriate.
15. Can you please confirm that the skills and experience evidence answers only require one example in line with DOS guidelines? Specifically, when suppliers are asked to submit evidence, the following advice is given: "You should only provide one example for each essential or nice-to-have requirement (unless the buyer specifies otherwise).": Suppliers are expected to provide one example for each skills and experience requirement. We will not score a supplier down if they only provide one example.

Suppliers can reuse examples across different skills and experience requirements. We will not score score a supplier down for reusing an example as long as it shows they’re capable of meeting the requirement.
16. ‘Demonstrable evidence of applying appropriate security controls and best practices’. Does this refer to Software or SDLC?: This refers to the creation of a design and consideration required to determine how to effectively meet security requirements i.e. non-repudiation.
17. ‘Demonstrable evidence of building data specifications and understanding data lifecycle management, including information assurance levels’. What does information assurance level mean? By data specifications and data lifecycle does this mean the Enterprise Information Management related work? Can you please provide examples?: Data specifications are used to define data structures/interfaces between separate parties. Lifecycle management ensures data quality/integrity is maintained during collection, transmission and storage. Information assurance relates to understanding and aligning with data confidentiality, availability and integrity requirements throughout the lifecycle. These are all aspects for Enterprise Information Management.
18. ‘Experience of working with data quality standards’. Is the answer expected in terms of which quality standards we have implemented, or with respect to the tooling around that? We understand that this is applicable to overall data management in an organisation. Please advise if this understanding is correct.: We are looking for a supplier who has experience managing data quality through the definition of standards. An example could be, handling a data migration where acceptable levels of data quality have had to be defined and agreed between two parties.
19. Can the technical team be based outside the UK: Due to restrictions and controls required around HM Land Registry live data this is not appropriate for this phase

We would envisage that at the start of the contract there would be a need to be on site in Plymouth regularly to work with the team, get the set up correct and ensure team cadence and working practices are embedded. Once the builds and PoC’s are identified and the teams understand what needs to be delivered then the need to be in Plymouth regularly would be assessed at that time.
20. What is expected in terms of user interface? Can the in-house delivery team do the UI?: It is expected that the supplier will be able to deliver Proof of Concepts which can be tested with users, and therefore will include the user interface.
The in-house delivery team does include User Interface expertise and the supplier would be expected to work alongside the internal team (frontend & backend)
21. Please can you define your definitions of blockchain vs DLT ie by this do you mean blockchain = Public blockchain, DLT = Private blockchain?: Our current understanding of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) is that it is a shared database across a network of nodes, with Blockchain being a type of DLT.

This phase of Digital Street is about exploring areas of improvement around land registration and understanding the capabilities of some of the technologies which may offer solutions. Part of this will be exploring the most appropriate visibility of any solution and what HM Land Registry’s role in any future solution might be.
22. Please can you define your definitions of blockchain vs DLT ie by this do you mean blockchain = Public blockchain, DLT = Private blockchain?: Our current understanding of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) is that it is a shared database across a network of nodes, with Blockchain being a type of DLT.

This phase of Digital Street is about exploring areas of improvement around land registration and understanding the capabilities of some of the technologies which may offer solutions. Part of this will be exploring the most appropriate visibility of any solution and what HM Land Registry’s role in any future solution might be.
23. Is there a certain blockchain that you are most interested in exploring? ie Hyperledger or Corda (private) vs Ethereum (Public).: We are looking to understand the technologies in this area and currently have no preferred technology.
24. Regarding the 6 problems to be solved - Are these to be explored under the remit of one remit or 6 separate projects?: All of the problems statements are to be addressed in the Digital Street project. We are likely to require a range of Proof of Concepts to test our hypotheses and findings
25. Do HM LR have any Project Management capacity within their team? Will the Delivery Manager or SME undertake this responsibility or will we be required to supply this?: The internal team at HMLR will have both Product & Delivery managers on the team.
26. Does the team need to be on site 3 days a week for agile ceremonies or can it be done by a videoconference?: We envisage that at the start of the contract there would be a need to be on site in Plymouth regularly to work with the team, get the set up correct and ensure team cadence and working practices are embedded. Once the builds and PoC’s are identified and the teams understand what needs to be delivered then the need to be in Plymouth regularly would be assessed.

All agile ceremonies other than stand up need to be face to face which we intend on doing all on the same day. Standups can be via videoconference or other agreed methods
27. How do you expect smart contracts to move funds? Do you mean funds in GBP, not in cryptocurrency?: We are looking to explore the capabilities of Smart Contracts, including the transfer of monies. Digital Street is a R&D project which is exploring what is possible, and therefore the currency of the monies is not defined.

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