Integrated Command and Control System Remote Console Network

Integrated Command and Control System (ICCS) provides essential radio and telephony communications from MPS control rooms to police officers, sister forces and other agencies. The technology that delivers a significant part of the ICCS Remote Console Network is at the end of its life. This project will replace the ICCS Remote Console Network with a Network Tower Agreement Wide Area Network Virtual Private Network and provide ongoing savings of £109,000 per annum from mid-year 2020/21 onwards.

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is requested to approve £982,000 of Capital to fund the replacement of the Integrated Command and Control System Remote Console Network.

1. Introduction and background

1.1. ICCS provides essential radio (via Airwave) and telephony communications from MPS control rooms to MPS officers, sister forces and other agencies.

1.2. The ICCS Remote Console Network extends this control room functionality to approximately 90 remote ICCS consoles at special event venues, such as royal palaces and major sports arenas.

1.3. MOPAC has recently invested in Network Tower Agreement (NTA). The Network Tower Agreement Wide Area Network (NTA WAN) has now been delivered and provides a fully supported service that is significantly more cost effective that the current ICCS remote console network.

1.4. This project is to migrate all ICCS remote consoles from the legacy MegaStream network to NTA WAN, whilst maintaining the required confidentiality, integrity and availability of the ICCS network traffic.

1.5. This project will enable NTA WAN to support the current ICCS system and the forthcoming replacement Command and Control system at special event venues, royal palaces and major sports arenas etc. No further capital investment in network infrastructure will be required at current remote ICCS console sites within the lifetime of NTA.

2. Issues for consideration

2.1. This project will deliver a revenue saving of £109k pa from mid-year 2020/21 onwards. This will contribute towards the Digital Policing (DP) savings target already factored into the DP budget for 2020/21.

2.2. The BT technology that delivers a significant part of the ICCS Remote Console Network (BT MegaStream 1Mbit/s) is at the end of its life: BT intend to withdraw support and decommission all MegaStream 1Mbit/s circuits on or after 31 March 2020. The recommended option in this paper addresses this issue.

2.3. MPS are negotiating a short extension of the current service given its impact and the anticipated project delivery timeframes.

2.4. This project will replace the ICCS Remote Console Network with a Network Tower Agreement (NTA) Wide Area Network (WAN) Virtual Private Network (VPN).

2.5. This project is part of a series of projects to replace disparate legacy networks with standardised NTA WAN VPN’s. This will improve performance, improve support levels, reduce complexity and reduce revenue costs.

2.6. No IT Health check is required, as all components of the proposal solution already hold Authority to Operate (AtO) approval and have been previously subjected to an ITHC.

3. Financial Comments

3.1. The project aims to replace the existing remote ICCS console network at a capital expenditure cost of £982k, which will be met from the DP Capital budget in 2019/20 and 2020/21. There is a saving of revenue costs of £109k per annum from mid-year 2020/21 onwards.

4. Legal Comments

4.1. The Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) is a contracting authority as defined in the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (the Regulations). All awards of public contracts for goods and/or services in excess of £189,330 shall be procured in accordance with the Regulations.

4.2. The proposed works orders with BT and Keysource are to be procured through the MOPAC’s Networks and Data Centre Managed Services ‘Tower’ contracts respectively. The technical and financial scope of the proposed orders are within the respective ‘Tower’ contracts.

4.3. Paragraph 7.23 of the MOPAC Scheme of Delegation and Consent provides that the Director of Strategic Procurement has delegated authority to approve the award of all contracts, with the exception of those called in through the agreed call in procedure. Paragraph 4.14 of the Scheme provides the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime reserves the right to call in any MPS proposal to award a contract for £500,000 or above.

4.4. Paragraph 4.8 of the MOPAC Scheme of Delegation and Consent provides that the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime (DMPC) has delegated authority to approve business cases for revenue or capital expenditure of £500,000 or above.

5. Commercial Issues

5.1. The replacement of ICCS remote console network project will be ordered under the Network Tower Agreement with BT.

5.2. Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM) support, Technical Equipment Room (TER) remediation and liaison with Landlords for non-owned MPS land/property for wayleaves will be ordered under the Data Centre Managed Services Tower Agreement with Keysource.

5.3. MPS confirm that the proposed works orders to BT and Keysource are within the technical and financial scope of Network Tower Agreement and Data Centre Managed Services Tower Agreement respectively.

5.4. The NTA terms & conditions includes all the key contractual clauses & payment mechanisms and allows for changes/projects to the contract through a prescribed change process.

5.5. The MOPAC has approved a total contract value of £200m for the Network Tower (PCD 151 dated 02/03/17. This paper does not have an impact on the total contract value.

5.6. The technical and financial scope of this BJP is within the scope of the original NTA contract as approved by MOPAC. The initial proposal was reviewed by the Core Infrastructure team and architecture who are recommending that this paper progresses.

5.7. There is no impact on the workforce as this request is about an existing service i.e. there are no TUPE implications or staff changes.

5.8. As an extension to an existing service, this work does not change any aspects relating to responsible procurement.

6. GDPR and Data Privacy

6.1. The MPS is subject to the requirements and conditions placed on it as a 'State' body to comply with the European Convention of Human Rights and the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018. Both legislative requirements place an obligation on the MPS to process personal data fairly and lawfully in order to safeguard the rights and freedoms of individuals.

6.2. Under Article 35 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Section 57 of the DPA 2018, Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIA) become mandatory for organisations with technologies and processes that are likely to result in a high risk to the rights of the data subjects.

6.3. The Information Assurance and Information Rights units within MPS will be consulted at all stages to ensure the project meets its compliance requirements.

6.4. No additional DPIAs are required for this project, as all work will be completed through existing contracts and services previously assessed. The project will ensure a privacy by design approach, which will allow the MPS to find and fix problems at the early stages of any project, ensuring compliance with GDPR or the Law Enforcement Directive (LED). DPIAs support the accountability principle, as they will ensure the MPS complies with the requirements of GDPR or the LED and they demonstrate that appropriate measures have been taken to ensure compliance. All NTA networks services, including all provided for the remote ICCS console network, utilise network equipment and services that have achieved ‘Authority to Operate’ (AtO) approval as documented within the Network Tower Agreement. In order to obtain AtO approval, equipment and services are subjected to the usual independent network penetration tests (ethical hacking) by a National Cyber Security Centre certified test house to ensure requirements for confidentiality, integrity and availability are met.

7. Equality Comments

7.1. This project will not impact Equality and Diversity. All work will be let through two existing MOPAC contracts: the Network Tower Agreement and the Data Centre Managed Services Tower Agreement. These two existing MOPAC contracts are fully compliant with legal requirements, including Equality Law, and MPS legal advisors confirmed this during contract review prior to contract award.

7.2. As this is an extension of an existing service, this work does not change any aspects relating to equality or diversity.

8. Background/supporting papers

8.1. Report.