HMPPS Prison Retail Services

The HMPPS Prison Retail Service is a critical service which delivers non-essential goods to prisoners within the UK prison system.

The service is required to deliver approximately 250,000 transactions per month in total, to a population of circa 88,000 prisoners, across 108 public prisons in England & Wales. The Authority may also require that privately managed prisons are able to opt-in to elements of the service.

The service will draw from a National Product List (NPL) agreed centrally, from which prisoners can purchase using their own funds. Each prison will offer a Local Product List (LPL) derived from the National Product List, to meet the needs of their prisoners.

The products required range from ambient, fresh, chilled and frozen food/drinks to toiletries/healthcare; and vapes/tobacco. This list is not exhaustive, and product types may be subject to change. Some goods supplied may also be bespoke to HMPPS, to meet security requirements (e.g. Vapes).

The Authority requires a service that meets the needs of the prisoners (the customer), whilst maintaining safety and security standards and supporting wider strategic aims of HMPPS.

The service consists of the following key elements:

• Supply of goods – consistent and stable supply of the products listed on the NPL and associated LPLs.
• Ordering processes – the taking and processing of individual prisoner orders in both digital and non-digital prisons.
• Order fulfilment – servicing of the prisoner orders, through pick & pack workshops or shops.
• Stock management – replenishment and management of stock both at wholesale and workshop/shop level, to ensure availability to service orders.
• Distribution – delivery of bulk goods or picked & packed orders to receiving site.

The preferred future delivery model includes a hybrid approach to fulfilment methods across the estate, and includes:

• A delivered service from off-site workshop(s), with orders picked & packed by the supplier.
• Local on-site workshops, with a supplier providing bulk deliveries of goods and a stock management system, and orders picked & packed by HMPPS (prisoner workforce).
• On-site shops, with some operated by the supplier and some operated by HMPPS. For all shops, the supplier would provide bulk deliveries of goods and a tilling system.
• ‘Twinned’ sites, whereby fulfilment for these sites is provided by another establishment. In this scenario, the suppliers would provide the bulk deliveries of goods for these orders to the fulfilling sites local workshop or shop.