MPs call for more centralisation in police IT
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One day after Cabinet Office slams central approach to NHS IT, Home Affairs Committee demands that plan for "nationally available" police IT be protected
MPs have called for the strategy to centralise the UK's police IT systems to be protected, just one day after the Cabinet Office slammed the centralised approach to IT in the NHS.
In July this year, Home Secretary Teresa May announced that a "police-led IT company" would take responsibilty for IT systems from the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA). The Home Affairs Committee today demanded that a priority for the new body should be to protect the NPIA's Information Systems Improvement Strategy (ISIS).
The NPIA had described ISIS as follows: "Currently, each force owns and operates its own ICT resulting in duplication of investment and effort. Working in partnership with ACPO [Association of Chief Police Officers], the Home Office and the private sector, ISIS will incrementally replace hundreds of systems with nationally available services which forces will pay for on the basis of consumption."
A report published by the Home Affairs Committee today acknolwedged that ISIS is "a massive undertaking", but nevertheless called for the Home Office to secure its future.
This contrasts with the statement made by the Department of Health yesterday, regarding the NHS' National Programme for IT. "It is no longer appropriate for a centralised authority to make decisions on behalf of local organisations," it said.
The Home Affairs Committee report, entitled "New Landscape of Policing", also supported a suggestion from IT trade body Intellect to create a national register of "approved" IT suppliers, in order to accelerate the IT procurement process.
Speaking to Information Age this morning, Francis West, the programme manager responsible for Intellect's proposal, argued that the register would make it easier for small and medium-sized IT suppliers to win police contracts, as the current paperwork is prohibitively expensive. The terms by which suppliers are approved would be the same as current procedures for police IT contracts, he said.
