Delays in upgrading police computer systems ‘putting safety of public at risk’

Delays in upgrading police computer systems could be putting the “security and safety of the public at risk”, a new report by the National Audit Office (NAO) warns.

A replacement IT system scheduled to be completed last year is now expected to be completed until 2025-26 at the very earliest, posing potential problems for officers needing to access crucial information, the report says.

It has urged the Home Office to “urgently” work with policy to replace out-of-date technology before it becomes obsolete.

The Home Office has dismissed concerns over public safety and access for police as inaccurate.

The two police IT systems – the Police National Computer (PNC) and the Police National Database (PND) – are considered vital to the country’s police and “part of the UK’s critical infrastructure”.

The PNC has been the main database of criminal records since 1974 and is used by officers across the country, while the PND is a national intelligence-sharing system launched in 2011.

In 2016 the Home Office set out to develop a new technology, the National Law Enforcement Data Service (NLEDS), which was expected to merge the PNC and PND into one unified database in 2020.

But the NAO said the programme is yet to “deliver expected services” and delays occurred when it became apparent the original project would be “late, difficult and costly to roll out and maintain, and would not meet the needs of the police”.

The programme is now now not expected to be fully up and running with an equivalent to the current PNC until 2025-26, while the total cost to the government department has risen by 68 per cent to £1.1 billion.

However, the PNC’s current technology will be outdated and no longer have technical support available after December 2024 which could leave it at a “higher risk of disruption for at least a year”, the NAO warned.

“In autumn 2020 the police lost confidence in the programme, formally raising their concerns with the Home Office’s permanent secretary,” the NAO said.

In response, Labour’s shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds accused Priti Patel of “putting community safety at risk” as a result of the problems.

He said the report revealed an “appalling lack of leadership and grip by the Home Secretary in making sure our police have the best technology at their disposal”, adding: “Ministers must urgently explain why there has been this additional delay with millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money wasted.”

According to the NAO report, the Home Office believes the actual risk of disruption is low due to contingency plans it has put in place. In June, the department told the NAO it had “increased confidence in the deliverability of the programme”, the report said.

A Home Office spokesperson said the new system would be more effective and provide “substantial savings” for police and taxpayers, adding: “The police continue to have full access to vital information while the service is implemented, with the Police National Computer remaining operational until the transition is complete.

“Parts of the programme are already delivering for the police, including the introduction of new technology which has made it quicker to successfully identify people pulled over at the roadside, saving officers over 19,000 hours to date.

“This is a complex programme and we have a dedicated and experienced team delivering it in a controlled and phased way.”

In May, an independent report called for urgent reforms after thousands of crime records stored by the PNC were wrongly deleted.

Although the report blamed “human error” and management failures, it added that the mainframe computer used for background checks on suspects’ characters was build in the 1970s and must be updated or replaced.