Technology Refresh for MPS Forensic Services

The scope of the Project Horizon is to provide a Technology Refresh for the MPS Forensic Services Department.

The current state of most of the non-Foundation IT estate. It is disparate, out-of-date and unsupportable. This was quantified through an audit of all FS departments conducted by external consultants.

The lack of a formal IT support which through necessity leads to some Forensic Services colleagues providing IT support to their teams and reduces the time they have available for case work.

The software used in MPS Forensic Services is often sourced ad hoc and support and maintenance is not managed in a holistic way.

• Non-Cashable – There are limited non cashable benefits which are difficult to quantify as this is a simple technology refresh.

• Qualitative Benefits – Forensics will no longer have to deliver a suboptimal service due to underperforming Hardware and Software with no IT support. There will be mitigation to several risks that the organisation face at the current time due to fragility of the Forensics Services IT offerings.

The preferred option with closest alignment to achieving the MPS Strategic objectives is recommended as Option 3 - Upgrade IT Hardware and Software with in –house outsourced IT support.

The MPS has run a competition to procure the hardware through the Crown Commercial Services (CCS), Tech Products 2 catalogue and ran another competition to procure associated support through a CCS commissioned framework, “Tech Services 2”.

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to:

1. Approve a Total Investment of £1,651,390:

a. A total Capital Investment cost of £406,390 for provision of new hardware (new high-end and standard desktop machines and standard laptops in 14 Forensic Services departments and this will be added to the capital programme.

b. A total Revenue Investment of £1,245,000 over 3 years for provision of a variety of licenced and maintained commercial software for use in Forensic Services, the adoption of a ‘Gold Build’ approach to software control and the provision of dedicated IT support to provide hardware and software support, project management and ‘Gold Build’ creation, maintenance and distribution. This is funded from Digital Policing budgets.

2. Approve contract award of £406,390 to Centreprise (Capital funding) over 3 years for hardware and contract award to XMA of £1.102m (Revenue funding) for IT support over 3 years. The procurement route was through the Crown Commercial Services (CCS) for hardware, and through a CCS commissioned framework, “Tech Services 2”, (RM3804) for support.

1. Introduction and background

1.1. Forensic Services within the MPS are a service provider to almost all of MPS Operational Units. Much of the IT Hardware and software in the Forensics space is out of date which in turn results in a suboptimal service provision to the Operational Units.

1.2. This coupled with the growth in digital data both in terms of the number of cases which involve digital data (around 90%) and the amount of digital data which is growing year on year mean that replacing the current hardware for Forensics and beginning a support contract with a reputable supplier are imperative to both ‘keeping the lights on’ and giving the department modern working equipment.

2. Issues for consideration

2.1. The hardware within Forensics is out of date with old operating systems and old versions of software.

2.2. The detailed information is contained in the restricted section of the report.

3. Financial Comments

3.1. The cost of the contract is £1,651,390 total project cost:

a. Total capital investment cost is £406,390

b. Total revenue cost is £1,245,000 (over 3 years).

3.2. The capital cost will be funded through adding this into the capital plan. The revenue cost is funded from Digital Policing budgets.

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 valued at £189,330 or above shall be procured in accordance with the Regulations and MOPAC governance.

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

4.3. Paragraph 4.13 of the Scheme provides the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime (DMPC) has delegated authority to approve all requests to go out to tender for contracts valued at £500,000 or above and to award MOPAC contracts with a total value of £500,000 or above.

5. Commercial Issues

5.1. The MPS ran a further competition for the procurement of hardware through the Crown Commercial Services (CCS), Tech Products 2 catalogue. The MPS also ran a further competition for the procurement of the associated support through a CCS commissioned framework, “Tech Services 2”, (RM3804). The MPS procured the support services through Lot 3 – Operational Services. Lot 3 is separated into four different Lots. The MPS has packaged the required support services through Lot 3a (end user services) and Lot 3d (application and data management) through one supplier.

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 screening questions have been completed and a DPIA is not required because this is a technology refresh project.

7. Equality Comments

7.1. As this is a technology refresh this work does not change any aspects relating to equality or diversity’. The nine protected characteristics specified by the Equality Act 2010 have been considered.

8. Background/supporting papers

8.1. Report.