Stalled £2bn 999 network in a state of emergency
A SCANDAL-hit replacement for the emergency services’ communications system has cost £2billion without results – and is mired in problems, MPs have warned.
The proposed new Emergency Services Network (ESN), first announced in 2015, was supposed to have replaced the ageing Airwave system for police, fire and ambulance services in England, Scotland and Wales, by 2020.
But the Government still does not know when the stalled replacement will be ready, the Commons public accounts committee said.
In findings published today, the group of MPs concluded continued delays with the rollout meant emergency services were facing “financial pressures as a result with no
specific mechanism put in place by Government to help them bear these costs”.
So far the project had not “delivered anything substantial or reduced any risks”.
Chairwoman Dame Meg Hillier said: “The ESN project is a classic case of optimism bias in Government. There has never been a realistic plan for ESN and no evidence it will work as well as the current system.Assertions from the Home Office that it will simply ‘crack on’ with the project are disconnected from the reality.”
The Home Office, she said, “must not simply throw good money after bad” and called for a plan by the end of the year.
Telecoms company Motorola provides Airwave and was originally contracted to provide elements of ESN. But in 2021 the Home Office wrote to the Competition and Markets Authority saying its profits from Airwave were “excessive” and acted as a disincentive for completing ESN on time.
A Home Office spokeswoman said it had “mutually agreed” with Motorola to terminate its contract for ESN last December.
She added: “The Home Office is making good progress in procuring a new user services supplier.”