[2025] EWHC 2664 (TCC)

The Procurement concerns the provision to DWP of audio-visual facilities (“Facilities”) for use by it when communicating with its customers, typically those who are receiving or seeking to receive the very wide range of benefits provided by DWP. The Facilities enable DWP to conduct interviews with customers by video conference, as opposed to by telephone or at a face-to-face meeting.

At the moment, Involve supplies Facilities to DWP pursuant to a contract for a Strategic Video Channel dated 1 December 2021 (“the Existing Contract”) and is therefore the incumbent supplier. I refer to the service provided by the Existing Contract as “the Existing Solution”. I refer to the service to be provided by the contract to be awarded pursuant to the Procurement as “the New Solution” and the contract itself as “the New Contract”.

The Existing Contract was due to expire on 30 November 2023, but has been extended on several occasions, to 30 November 2024, 31 August 2025 and most recently to 28 February 2026.

The Existing Solution provided under the Existing Contract is in connection with health assessments carried out by or on behalf of the DWP (“Health Assessments”). The video-conferencing platform supplied by Involve is called Attend Anywhere (“AA”). This platform was not developed and is not owned by Involve, but rather by a third-party supplier, namely Induction Healthcare Group Plc (“IHG”). Involve effectively re-sells AA to parties such as DWP pursuant to a license granted to it by IHG

At the moment, the only other element of DWP which uses Facilities is Universal Credit. Again, the platform employed is AA, but this is not supplied to DWP by Involve directly and it does not form part of the Existing Contract.

The aim of the New Solution is, on any view, to expand considerably the use by DWP of Facilities. In particular, and as set out in the first witness statement (“WS”) of Jeremy Edwards, the Head of Digital Channels at DWP, dated 17 July 2025:

“20.

The Contract is a Strategic Reference Architecture project (‘SRA’). SRA underpins DWP’s ambitions for how DWP Digital will increase collaboration across teams and support the transformation of departmental services in line with DWP strategy. The solution is intended to provide a high quality, modern and importantly single source video conferencing channel solution to enable DWP to interact with its customers, and which is capable of being rolled out across DWP’s various lines of business (the “New Solution”).

22.

SRA aims to benefit from the adoption of common technologies, for example a single video platform, to deliver additional value. The New Solution aligns to this ambition through the provision of a single platform across all lines of business, supporting a unified approach to customer-facing video appointments, encouraging collaboration and further innovation to the benefit of all functions.

23.

The primary intent of the New Solution is to provide a better service to benefit claimants (as set out below under Key Benefits), who are often some of the most vulnerable members of society. It is envisaged that the New Solution will become available to a wider set of DWP customers who prefer or for whom video conferencing is the preferred method of communicating with DWP, in a way the incumbent service has not been able to deliver. This would include by way of example, those for who travelling is an impediment for cost, distance or disability reasons…

25.

The New Solution is intended to replace video conferencing solutions currently deployed by DWP in its Health Assessment and Universal Credit directorates, which are the only services currently offering a video conferencing channel and whose contracts are coming to an end. The New Solution will be used by:

• Health Services (health assessments)

• Child Maintenance Services

• Retirement Services

• Fraud and Error Services

• Universal Credit Services

• Visiting

• Disability Services

• Working Age

• Other miscellaneous lines of business”

DWP contends that the New Solution will be a very considerable improvement upon the Existing Solution, not merely in terms of the scope of deployment of Facilities, but also in terms of quality. According to Mr Edwards, it was not possible to roll out the AA platform supplied by Involve more widely because of security and functionality issues. This is not accepted by Involve but for present purposes, this does not matter. On any view the New Solution is intended to be a much more expansive programme for the rolling-out of Facilities across DWP’s business lines.

Involve receives an annual revenue from the Existing Contract of around £450,000. Its total turnover for 2023 was £15.98 million, yielding a gross profit of £6.47 million and an operating profit of £1.35 million.

The Claim Form intimates a claim for loss of profits (as a result of not being awarded the New Contract) of £4.98 million.

It is Involve’s case that the advent and scope of the New Solution provided it with the opportunity to develop its own video-conferencing platform which it would then supply to DWP. It would therefore move from being a simple re-seller of AA to being a significant provider of Facilities in its own right.

Further details about the subject matter of the Procurement and otherwise will be addressed below.