Replacement Tetra Radios & Associated Equipment

The delay to the Home Office programme to replace the existing Airwave radio network with a new 4G Emergency Services Network (ESN) has resulted in the requirement to replace the current Airwave radio terminals. These current Airwave radio terminals have been in use since 2005 and are now 14 years old and classified as end of life with no further extensions to the warranty possible. Few failed radios are repairable, all failed hand portable radios are replaced with spares from stock. As a result, it is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain sufficient spares to support operational deployment.

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to approve:

• The purchase of Tetra radios to replace the current end of life and out of warranty police radios at a cost of £24.3m, made up of £21.3m capital (funded within the capital plan) and £3m project revenue (funded in the Digital Policing Project Revenue budget).
• The award of a direct call off contract to Sepura Ltd, worth £28m, for an initial period of 5 years, from February 2019 to February 2024 with an optional extension period of 12 months, for the supply of Sepura Tetra Terminals, ancillaries and services from the Police ICT Company (PICTCO) National Tetra Framework Agreement.

1. Introduction and background

1.1. The Home Office Emergency Services Network (ESN) programme has suffered significant delays to a point where the MPS (and potentially all UK emergency services) will remain dependent on the Airwave network until at least December 2022, probably longer. This matter has been the subject of parliamentary scrutiny.

1.2. The MPS current Airwave Tetra radio terminals have been in use since 2005. They are now 14 years old and classified as end of life with no further extensions to the warranty possible. Few failed radios are repairable, all failed hand portable radios are replaced with spares from stock. As a result, it is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain sufficient spares to support operational deployment

2. Issues for consideration

2.1. This paper addresses the issue by seeking funding to replace the existing radios with new Tetra radios. This will achieve the following benefits:

• Provision of an operational radio terminal fleet that supports front line police officers by enhancing communications and safety, with access to the Airwave Service until transition to ESN;

• Provision of service support for the new terminals and new terminal programming solution incorporated in the Managed Radio Services contract at no additional cost.

3. Financial Comments

3.1. The capital cost of £24.1m is fully funded within the new draft capital plan with MOPAC for approval in early 2019.

3.2. The £3m project revenue funded from the existing Digital Policing project revenue budget.

4. Legal Comments

4.1. The Mayor’s Officer for Policing Crime is a contracting authority as defined in the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (“the Regulations”). All awards of public contracts for goods and/or services valued at £181,302 or above must be procured in accordance with the Regulations. This report confirms the value of the proposed contract exceeds the threshold. Accordingly, the Regulations are engaged.

4.2. The Procurement Strategy and the proposed procurement route is to enter into a call-off contract under the Police ICT Buying Company (PICTCO) Framework Agreement (the National Airwave Terminal Framework Agreement) dated 15 November 2018. This Framework Agreement allows all Police Forces in the UK to directly enter into a call-off contract under LOT 1 for TETRA hand held terminals, vehicle terminals, accessories and associated services. The Framework Agreement has been compliantly procured by PICTCO in accordance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and the MPS are a permitted user of the Framework Agreement. Therefore, this call-off contract is compliant with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015.

4.3. Paragraph 4.13 of the MOPAC Scheme of Delegation and Consent provides that the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime (DMPC) has delegated authority to approve all requests to go out to tender for contracts of £500,000 or above.

4.4. Paragraph 7.23 of the Scheme provides the Director of Strategic Procurement has consent to approve all proposals to award of all contracts with the exception of those called in through the agreed call in procedure. Paragraph 4.14 provides the DMPC reserves the right to call in any proposal to award a contract valued at £500,000 or above.

5. Commercial Issues

5.1. Value for money will be achieved by utilizing the national procurement framework recently developed by the Police Information and Communications Technology Company (PICTCo), ensuring the MPS attain the best possible price for hardware.

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. The project does not use personally identifiable data of members of the public, so there are no GDPR issues to be considered.

7. Equality Comments

7.1. The work covered by the approval recommended in this paper is to replace end of life and out of warranty equipment. There are no Equality or Diversity impacts associated with this work.

8. Background/supporting papers

8.1. Report