PCD 1555 Refresh of frontline and field role devices

PCD 1555 Refresh of frontline and field role devices

This paper seeks approval to initiate a project to replace to replace the current tablets with laptops with a capital spend of £15,158m in 23/24 and £1,149m in 24/25.

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to: 

1. Approve Capital spend of £15,158m in 23/24 and £1,149m in 24/25, bringing forward additional capital spend of £5,823k into 2023/24 from 2024/25, funded from the approved DDaT Capital budget to refresh tablets with laptops in line with policy proposed in the amended BJP. 

2. Approve the initiation of procurement action for a contract or contracts for laptop devices and associated services with a total contract value of £16,307k and a term of 2 years with 2 additional 12 month extensions and delegate approval to award contracts to the Commercial Director. 

PART I - NON-CONFIDENTIAL FACTS AND ADVICE TO THE DMPC 

1. Introduction and background  

1. The use of technology to ‘Keep Londoners Safe’ remains a key tenet in the MPS’s strategies.  The MOPAC Police and Crime Plan for London 2022-25 supports the need to “modernise the MPS to tackle crime on and off-line in a more effective and efficient way” through use of the MPS capital plan to maintain existing systems.  A New Met for London focusses on setting MPS up to succeed, specifically to ‘equip them with the data and technology they need to use their powers precisely while maintaining trust and upholding high standards’. 

2. In line with these strategic aims Digital Data and Technology have significantly improved the ability of the MPS to work peripatetically away from traditional bases, driving the change to mobile devices which now make up 90% of the MPS’ end user computing devices as well as implementing mobile phones to 30,000 frontline colleagues to enable improved access to information.   

3. The current Panasonic Tablet estate was implemented in 2019 as a refresh of the previous Dell Tablets and provided a much needed improvement in useability, utility and resilience to the ruggedness of frontline policing roles.  The majority of Panasonic tablets are now approaching end of life and the continued refresh of end of life equipment is key to reducing support risk and improving security posture.  Windows 10 has an end of life date of Oct 2025 and Windows 11 has hardware requirements that are incompatible with older devices and so device refresh enables the Met to keep pace with modern software capabilities. 

4. With a view to understand frontline requirements for refresh of tablets DDaT undertook a pilot with ERPT and SNT officers in NE and NA during July to Sep 2023.  The pilot issued 122 laptops and 114 newer version tablets that included a keyboard and asked users to feedback on a variety of elements of the different devices.  The feedback from the pilot was that 84% of users preferred laptops, with 100% of laptop users wanting to use a laptop and 63% of Tablet users wanting a laptop.  When asked “To what extent has your new device helped you work more productively?” laptops scored 9.6 out of 10 and tablets users scoring 7.6 out of 10. Users also reported fewer issues using laptops than tablets and that the new smart phones offer a good portable capability that can be carried on the person. 

2. Issues for consideration 

1. A decision is required from the Deputy Mayor by 31/10/23 so that orders can be placed with appropriate suppliers to ensure completion of project delivery by 31/3/23. 

2. Current tablets are end of life and a pilot in two BCU’s has shown that officers overwhelmingly prefer laptops to tablets and feel they are able to do their jobs more effectively with them. 

3. The recommendation is to progress with the business case for a project to replace all current tablets with laptops by March 2024 with associated device policy and DDaT system changes to support this. 

4. The replacement of tablets with laptops will bring the kit issued to response and safer neighbourhood teams in line with the rest of the MPS and will complement the smartphone platform deployed earlier in 2023.  

3. Financial Comments  

1. As per the overprogramming model used by DDaT, the capital expenditure can be managed within the approved DDaT capital plan without impacting other capital works. The refresh of tablets with laptops will bring forward additional capital spend of £5,823k into 2023/24 from 2024/25 which will be built into the quarter 2 capital forecast and the draft capital plan.  

4. Legal Comments 

1. MOPAC is a contracting authority as defined in the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (the Regulations).  All awards of public contracts for goods and/or services valued at £213,477.00 (inclusive of VAT) or above must be procured in accordance with the Regulations.  This report confirms the proposed contract exceeds this value.  Accordingly, the Regulations will be engaged. This report confirms a number of compliant routes to market for this requirement.   

2. The MOPAC Scheme of Delegation and Consent provides the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime (“DMPC”) has delegated authority to approve:  

• Business cases for revenue or capital expenditure of £500,000 and above (paragraph 4.8); and 

• All requests to go out to tender for contracts of £500,000 or above, or where there is a particular public interest (paragraph 4.13). 

3. Paragraph 7.23 of the Scheme provides that the Director of Commercial Services has consent for the approval of the award of all contracts, with the exception of those called in through the agreed call in procedure.  Paragraph 4.14 of the Scheme provides the DMPC reserves the right to call in any MPS proposal to award a contract for £500,000 or above 

5. Commercial Issues  

1. The supplies and services required to deliver this change shall be procured  utilising the most cost efficient and operationally advantageous method as detailed in procurement strategy within the BJP. Commercial services will be engaged to ensure MPS obtain best value. 

6. GDPR and Data Privacy  

1. The MPS is subject to the requirements and conditions placed on it as a 'State' body to comply with the European Convention of Human Rights and the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018. Both legislative requirements place an obligation on the MPS to process personal data fairly and lawfully in order to safeguard the rights and freedoms of individuals. 

2. Under Article 35 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Section 57 of the DPA 2018, Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIA) become mandatory for organisations with technologies and processes that are likely to result in a high risk to the rights of the data subjects. 

3. The Information Assurance and Information Rights units within MPS will be consulted at all stages to ensure the project meets its compliance requirements. 

4. The project does not use personally identifiable data of members of the public, so there are no GDPR issues to be considered. 

7. Equality Comments    

8. MOPAC is required to comply with the public sector equality duty set out in section 149(1) of the Equality Act 2010. This requires MOPAC to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations by reference to people with protected characteristics. The protected characteristics are: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation. 

9. The MPS’ existing Assistive Technology and Accessibility features will continue to function with the refreshed devices and the project will ensure AT and Accessibility tools are working for individuals as part of the refresh. 

3. As this is an extension of an existing service this work does not change any aspects relating to equality or diversity. 

8. Background/supporting papers 

None. 

Part 2 – This section refers to the details of the Part 2 business case which is NOT SUITABLE for MOPAC Publication.     

The Government Security Classification marking for Part 2 is:  

OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE [COMMERCIAL]  

 Part 2 of Refresh Frontline and Field Role Devices (Tablets to Laptops) BJP is exempt from publication for the following reasons:  

•  Exempt under Article 2(2)(a) of the Elected Local Policing Bodies (Specified Information) Order 2011 (Data Protection Section 43 – Commercial Interests).    

The paper will cease to be exempt upon completion of the contract. This is because the information is commercially sensitive and could compromise future procurement activity.