The Home Office has retained IT and business consultancy CGI to provide data network management and support services for the Police National Database (PND).
It has just published a contract award notice for a deal that came into effect in April, valued at £70 million and set to run until the end of March 2026.
The move reflects the abandonment of a plan to replace the PND, which provides for the sharing of intelligence between police forces and other law enforcement agencies, with a new National Law Enforcement Data Service.
In September the National Audit Office published a highly critical report of progress on the new service, which noted that in 2020, the replacement of the PND was dropped from the programme’s scope due to increasing costs, delays and concerns among police forces that it would not reach expectations.
This has necessitated the continuation of running the PND and led to the renewal of the deal with CGI. The database was initially developed under a contract awarded in 2007 to Logica – since acquired by CGI.
Image from iStock, Darrensp
