The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) has signed Motorola Solutions on a £31.7 million contract to deliver a new mobilising system.
According to the contract award notice, the procurement has been arranged without a call for competition due to the urgent need for a new system when the current arrangement expires at the end of next year.
It says there have been a number of unsuccessful procurement exercises based on the requirements and there is now insufficient time for a fresh competition.
An earlier tender document indicated that the system should be based on a commercial off-the-shelf solution or platform, with minimum requirements for 999 telephony, handling emergency calls, supporting the mobilisation of responses, providing management information and reporting systems, call recording and staff training.
Anxieties and vulnerability
This comes amid anxieties about the effectiveness of the three existing systems for supporting the service’s control rooms. In April of last year HM Fire Service Inspectorate published a report saying they were considered to be beyond end-of-life and vulnerable.
Among the weaknesses was that the old systems would not be able to cope with switch from the integrated digital services network (ISDN) to digital and the implementation of the Emergency Services Network. These require that the new solution is in place by the end of 2025.
