The Home Office has signed CGI as the new technical delivery partner for the Emergency Services Communications Programme.
They have agreed on a five-year contract, which has options to extend for two more, came into force in April and is valued at between £51 million to £71 million. It makes the company responsible for a number of projects including the delivery of the Emergency Services Network (ESN).
The award notice for the contract with CGI says it will cover areas including managing changes of technology suppliers, service integration, supplier assurance and live technical service design. The Home Office has identified a handful of initial projects and is likely to introduce more.
Continual problems
This comes after a series of problems afflicting the development of the ESN, which is intended to replace the Airwave communications network for emergency services. Work on the programme began in 2015 and was reset in 2018, and while it was originally scheduled to be in use by 2020 it is still unclear when it is likely to go live.
Last year it was the subject of highly critical reports from the National Audit Office and Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, and the Home Office and Motorola agreed on the early termination of the company’s contract for its user services role in the development of the ESN.
The department is understood to be looking for a replacement supplier for that element of the programme.
