Recommendation 23

As the NAO reported, the PNC’s current technology will no longer be fully supported beyond 2024. The Department told the NAO that it had decided to accept the risk of running the PNC without support for the database after 2024.46 In our evidence session the Department claimed that there would only be one small element of the system that will be unsupported beyond 2024, which was also the most stable element with no incidents against it for the last four years. The Department said it was investing significantly to ensure it could provide internal support mechanisms for that element. The former CDDTO confirmed that while the element would be unsupported by the vendor, the Department would provide that support in its stead. The Department said it was confident it would have the necessary expertise itself to deal with anything that came up.47 Replacing the Police National Database