ICO FOI Concilliation Service - Pre Market Engagement

The Information Commission (IC) is undertaking discovery for a future FOI Conciliation Service (FCS). We are inviting suppliers to this pre market engagement to share market insight on the feasibility, delivery approach and indicative timescales for a service capable of supporting the end-to-end handling and conciliation of Freedom of Information (FOI) complaints.

Prior to commencing formal procurement, we are engaging the market to:

•Refine and validate our understanding of the broader opportunity, to demonstrate best practice in the application of new technology whilst maintaining public trust.

•Shape our requirements, drawing on sector best practices and supplier expertise to deliver a solution.

•Gain insight into indicative delivery timelines, and the organisational conditions we would need to enable for success.

•Leverage supplier experience in delivering technology solutions for similar organisations.

•Test our current assumptions, identify proven or emerging delivery approaches, understand what products and features are available and ensure we are ready to progress

The Premarket engagement will run for four weeks from 21st October 2026 and will inform the subsequent tender specification. It is intended to tender with a robust specification that clearly defines our requirements and enables us to identify the solution that best meets the needs of the FOI FCS service.

Participation in this PME (Preliminary Market Engagement) is voluntary, and suppliers will not be disadvantaged in any subsequent procurement process by their decision to engage or not.

To assist the Information Commission to develop its proposed service requirements, the Information Commission would appreciate responses from interested potential providers to a questionnaire which is available via the Delta eSourcing Platform.

Please copy and paste this URL: https://www.delta-esourcing.com/respond/992RKPA72P into your browser. For any technical queries regarding the Delta eSourcing Portal please contact Delta at helpdesk@delta-esourcing.com, or via telephone on 0800 923 9236.

Full PME documentation is available to you when you open the link/URL provided, which provides for you a full description of what the IC is looking for and a questionnaire for you to complete and submit via the Delta platform.

Responses to the questionnaire should be submitted by:

12:00 noon on Wednesday 18th November 2026

For more information about this opportunity, please visit the eSourcing portal at:

https://www.delta-esourcing.com/tenders/UK-UK-Wilmslow:-Software-package-and-information-systems./992RKPA72P

To respond to this opportunity, please click here:

https://www.delta-esourcing.com/respond/992RKPA72P