Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 17
17
Accepted
Emergency services will independently determine ESN readiness with no mandated adoption
Conclusion
The emergency services expect to decide for themselves whether ESN is ready.52 The police representative said they had been reassured that no force will be forced to adopt ESN.53 The ambulance service was also positive, but despite a more centralised approach, there is no-one with central authority to mandate that individual ambulance trusts accept ESN.54 The fire service emphasised that, once the agreed requirements for ESN are met they expected Chief Fire Officers would be able to accept ESN.55 The Department said it had brought users inside the programme to make sure it understood the emergency service’s requirements, so that no organisation would want to ‘veto’ ESN.56 While it has tried this approach before, the Department says it had now undergone a ‘mindset shift’ on the importance of working with the emergency services.57 Emergency service representatives agreed that the Department had engaged well with national groups including the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the National Fire Chiefs’ Council.58
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the committee's points on emergency services' readiness, confirming that an ESMCP control plan, including user transition and Airwave shutdown activities, has been drafted, consulted with users, and will be agreed by end 2023, with phases agreed with users.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
3.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: end December 2023 3.2 The department has drafted an outline plan, the ESMCP control plan. 3.3 The control plan shows the main building blocks, dependencies and sequencing, and includes elapsed time contingency. The control plan includes all elements of prototyping, and testing (including real-world testing), as well as the activities leading to user transition and Airwave shutdown. The durations of all phases that affect users (for example, formal ‘service acceptance’ and transition from Airwave) have been agreed with users. The control plan is now out for consultation with users, and it will be agreed before the end of 2023. The control plan will be turned into a full Programme Plan after the new User Services supplier is confirmed, and their delivery plan is known. In 2024, the programme will return to the Major Projects Review group with a business case, budget and clear plan, prior to the award of the User Services contract.