Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 2
2
The Department made poor decisions at the outset of the NLEDS programme and, despite signs...
Conclusion
The Department made poor decisions at the outset of the NLEDS programme and, despite signs it was going badly, was slow to make the necessary changes to correct this. The original scope and ambition for the NLEDS programme was unrealistic. The Department created a programme designed to replace two vital police information systems without fully understanding the police’s requirements or how these systems worked. The PNC had evolved over several decades as it was adapted and expanded. When the programme team attempted to understand how the PNC worked, it became clear that it was much more complex than the Department had anticipated, resulting in delays and large amounts of additional work. An early programme decision to merge the PNC and PND systems made the complexity worse because the two systems used very different data formats. As the consequences of these issues became apparent, a series of internal and external reviews highlighted that NLEDS was at risk of not delivering what the police needed. Despite these warnings, the Department did not step back to assess the fundamental problems that the programme had encountered, and its first programme reset in 2019 was not effective in addressing these problems. Following the second programme reset in late 2020, the Department then took several months to decide whether to proceed with the programme. Recommendation: The Permanent Secretary should ensure that he and other senior staff have sufficient regular oversight of NLEDS from now on, to ensure that he can quickly see problems as they arise and be prepared to take early and decisive action to recover or restructure the programme.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
2022. It should report against these metrics annually to enable Parliament and the public to determine what progress it is making towards meeting the objectives set out in the Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan. 2.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: January 2023 2.2 The government agrees with the Committee that it is important to have clear metrics for the reform programme and to publish progress updates about the operational effectiveness of schemes regularly. 2.3 The government has, since the Committee’s investigation in October 2021, published more information about its key aims for the schemes. 2.4 These interventions will support the long-term environmental targets that are being developed under the Environment Act 2021 and will be consulted upon soon. 2.5 The government will report annually on the delivery of targets within its statutory Environmental Improvement Plan, as required under the Act. This will include metrics about the performance and contribution of Environmental Land schemes.