Contractor CGI will pass supplier relationships to the department as deal is extended for a further three years
The Home Office has extended its contract with IT and business process company CGI to manage the Police National Database (PND) for another three years, following up the original seven-year term that was agreed in 2009.
Under the terms of the extension, the company will ‘disaggregate’ its relationships with other suppliers, notably hardware and software providers, passing direct responsibility for the task to the Home Office.
In addition, the PND will be migrated to the Crown Hosting Service, the data centre facility run as a joint venture between the Cabinet Office and Ark Data Centres.
The PND, which processes more than 3 billion searchable records and runs over 4 million searches per year, was set up as a police intelligence system to enable the sharing of existing data between police forces. It focuses on data relevant to crimes, providing officers from a police force with access to intelligence from others, and was developed under the now defunct National Policing Improvement Agency following Lord Bichard’s inquiry into the failings that led to the Soham murders in 2002.
CGI said that since its introduction further capabilities have been added, including big data visualisation technologies, a digital focused search facility and automatic alerts and repeat searches.
Steve Thorn, senior vice president UK public sector at CGI, said: “Police officers have long done the best they can with the information at their disposal. Collaboration and the Police National Database takes the existing information and makes it more accessible, ensuring officers can bring together disparate pieces of information into a meaningful pattern.
“The PND is more than an IT system, it is a weapon in the fight against crime and terrorism.”
Image: iStock
