The Home Office is making contingency plans in the event of the Police National Computer (PNC) being retired before its replacement is ready for use.
It has published a prior information notice to sound out potential suppliers on a contingency option and feed into a potential future procurement.
This follows persistent concerns about the programme to develop the Law Enforcement Data Service (LEDS) as a replacement to the PNC, which has been in place since 1974 and is currently managed by Fujitsu Services under a contract set to run until March 2026.
The LEDS programme has been subject to delays and in late 2021 was the subject of highly critical reports by the National Audit Office and Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC). They attributed this largely to a lack of clarity in the initial plans and the lack of a shared understanding between the Home Office and police forces on what LEDS should deliver.
According to the PIN, the programme team has assured the PAC that it will not have to use the contingency option, but the Home Office regards the move as “operationally and commercially prudent”.
Need for service continuity
It says: “It would be remiss of us not to have a contingency option for the continued service continuity of PNC if the LEDS trajectory were to change and we needed to execute the contingency option.”
It acknowledges that this may not be an attractive opportunity to some companies but that early market engagement indicated that there is some appetite to respond.
The notice adds that the Home Office wants to update the market on the progress it is making, and give companies the opportunity to mobilise teams and begin collaborations with suppliers to take part in a further competition to provide a service.
