Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 2
Twenty-First Report: Transforming electronic monitoring services
Published 21 Oct 2022
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Electronic Monitoring programme All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
HMPPS remains reliant on outdated technology which puts the tagging service at risk of failing. Due to the prolonged delays in the programme, HMPPS is relying on legacy technology and will have to use its current case management system until at least 2024, which will cost £9.8 million for remediation work and licensing costs. As HMPPS has been using its current system since 2012, many of its applications are no longer supported by manufacturers and have severe risks, with outdated hardware and software. The telephone system Capita uses in the live service has failed six times since May 2021. HMPPS asserts that there have not been any undetected breaches by offenders, as it recovers data after an outage. But this clearly remains a significant risk until it replaces the system. HMPPS is updating and replacing systems to ensure they are stable and scalable as the number of people fitted with tags rises. It opted not to simulate additional tagging volumes on its existing systems to see how well they can cope with caseload increases, but asserts that it will improve resilience by moving the system to the cloud. Recommendation: To provide assurance that the risk of system failure will not materialise, HMPPS should explain the following in its Treasury Minute response: • what progress it has made in delivering planned remediation work on its case management system; • how well its systems are coping with caseload increases; and • how it will ensure that future digital contracts will factor in routine IT upgrades and maintenance. 6 Transforming electronic monitoring services
From: Public Accounts Committee, Twenty-First Report: Transforming electronic monitoring services (HC 34), 21 October 2022
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 14 December 2022 (deadline 21 December 2022).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government states that it agrees with each of the Committee's six recommendations on the Ministry of Justice's electronic monitoring services, and gives target implementation dates for five of them.
- On real-time police access to GPS data, the government agrees with the recommendation, but says police have advised that live access is not a current priority; it will "consider whether and how changes to the service can be made" should the police's view change.
- On outdated technology, remediation work has moved from December 2022 to March 2023, and system improvements "by the end of January 2023" are intended to let the GPS system cope with rising volumes.
- On evidence of impact, a benefits management strategy and realisation plan will be in place "By April 2023", and a formal evaluation strategy for electronic monitoring is being developed. The target implementation date is August 2023.
- On oversight of the expansion programme, the agency commits to write to the Committee in August 2023, once new contracts have been awarded.