Following a procurement exercise in 2021, Democracy Counts Ltd was awarded the contract to supply the Electoral Management System (EMS) for the Electoral Registration Officer/Returning Officer (ERO/RO). The timing of this procurement was strategically aligned with the 2022 election cycle, which ultimately did not include any scheduled elections. The EMS contract was set to expire in 2026, coinciding with (what was to be) a natural fallow year (i.e. no scheduled elections), thereby reducing the risk and operational burden of transitioning to a new supplier during an active election period.
However, since 2022, there have been developments that have introduced additional complexities that make the originally envisaged procurement in early 2026 problematic.

The Government’s English Devolution intentions, and Greater Essex being within the Government’s Devolution Priority Programme, would envisage (subject to the necessary orders being made nationally) the first Greater Essex Mayoral election in May 2026. As part of the Devolution Priority Programme, Government also oversaw the enactment of The Local Authorities (Changes to Years of Ordinary Elections) (England) Order 2025 which, for Tendring, concerned the change in the scheduled year of elections for Essex County Council from 2025 to 2026. . Given the current position that there would be combined elections to deliver locally on 7 May 2026, potentially changing EMS provider early in 2026 poses an unacceptable risk to the delivery of those elections.

The direct award to the current EMS provider for a six month period puts the potential date for a new EMS contract beyond the scheduled elections date of 7 May 2026 and is sufficiently early to allow for any implementation of a new system to be managed ahead of the elections scheduled for May 2027. An exempt from the Council's procedure rules was approved for this direct award, from the Council's Corporate Director for Finance and IT and from the Council's Leader (as Portfolio Holder for Corporate Finance and Governance) (attached).

That the current Electoral Management System (EMS) supplier (Democracy Counts Ltd) be given a direct award by this Council for 6 months from March 2026 in the sum of £7,500 to then provide for the procurement exercise to be undertaken for an EMS supplier from Autumn 2026 (rather than Spring 2026).

The option of continuing with a process to procure an EMS supplier from March 2026 was considered and, for the risks referenced elsewhere, was discounted. The contract with the current provider could not be extended and, as such, the option of extending the current contract was discounted.