Background

The ESMCP was commissioned by the Home Office in 2011. It was recognised at the time that the programme objectives were ambitious, requiring technology and standards to deploy dedicated public safety communications over a commercial network, while ensuring prioritisation to emergency services. The Programme sought to deliver an Emergency Services Network (ESN) for over 107 emergency services and over 300 organisations that currently use Airwave.

In 2016 the Scottish Police Authority, as a key signatory, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Programme. This was conditional on ESMCP meeting the operational requirements of Police Scotland. This support included caveats such as financial assurance, affordability and governance.

In 2019 members were advised that the Programme was working to a schedule of what was described as ‘incremental delivery’ and work continued in Force to support the delivery of the Programme. This included the review of a full business case in June 2021, which detailed procurement in ‘Lots’, with different suppliers providing parts of the delivery of the Programme, namely:

(a)    Lot 1 (delivery partner): was awarded to Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) to provide programme management, integration and reporting on transition to ESN;

(b)    Lot 2 (user services): was awarded to Motorola to act as a service integrator to provide end-to-end systems’ integration, manage user accounts and provide user services, including the mission critical press to talk application;

(c)    Lot 3 (mobile services) was awarded to EE as a network operator to provide a resilient national mobile network.

This business case included contingencies to manage a high risk of ability to deliver on the part of the User Services supplier.

The SPA was last updated on the progress of ESMCP in a paper to the Resources Committee in May 2021.

In 2022, following considerable commercial and procurement challenges, Motorola advised the Home Office they would not wish to renew their contract when it expired in 2024. A decision was made by the Programme to execute the planned contingency and reprocure for User Services.  Early contract terms were agreed with the supplier in December 2022.

The procurement for User Services is underway through a competitive dialogue model. The timeline for delivery of ESN will be dependent on knowing the outcome of the award with the new supplier in early 2024.

The programme are in discussions with EE with a view to a direct contract award for User Services as the current contract runs out in 2024. In the event that agreement cannot be reached, or a challenge emerges from any commercial competitor, the programme will reprocure for Mobile Services.