TROO0487 IEP Escrow Verification Services

Under the IEP ECML contract, the Department, along with Agility Trains East (ATE) and Hitachi Rail Limited (HRL), were obliged to enter into an IP Escrow Agreement with NCC Group (NCC). As part of this Agreement, the cost of any verification works by NCC shall be borne by the Department. NCC are now commencing the works to verify the material deposited in escrow which can be rebuilt completely independently of HRL by the NCC technical team. Hence a Direct Award with NCC in order to provide payment and fulfil our obligations. The primary focus of the engagement with NCC is to validate that the source code, assets, and components deposited in escrow can be rebuilt independently simulating the steps that would need to be replicated in the event of supplier failure. By conducting this level of verification, the Department are ensuring that the escrow protection in place can be utilised for Business Continuity purposes. IEP (InterCity Express Programme) require the provision of services with NCC to validate that the source code, assets, and components deposited in escrow can be rebuilt independently simulating the steps that would need to be replicated in the event of supplier failure. By conducting this level of verification, the Department are ensuring that the escrow protection in place can be utilised for Business Continuity purposes. IEP understand that this service will be ongoing through-out the duration of the Master Availability and Reliability Agreement (MARA ) and Train Availability and Reliability Agreement (TARA) contracts and the life span of the current trains. IEP would like to consider the use of a different way to procure these services which last longer than a single year at a time after.