PCD 1572 CONNECT

PCD 1572 CONNECT

1. This document summarises version 3 of the Full Business Case (FBC) for CONNECT, providing details of changes and additions made since version 2 of the FBC which was published in February 2022.  

2. Version 3 of the FBC incorporates scope and costs associated with completion of the CONNECT programme and addresses the operational costs associated with operating CONNECT in a business-as-usual context. 

3. Decisions are required in respect of: 

1. Increases in capital and revenue budgets, resulting from replanning for implementation of Drop 2 of the CONNECT solution (Intelligence, Investigation, and Proactive Management Plans), and funding for the provision of support, governance and continuous improvement post-implementation; and  

2. Variations to contracts, to support the above. 

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to: 

1. To approve the inclusion of a £49.927m investment in the capital plan, and £56.694m in the Medium-Term Financial Plan (MTFP), for the continuation of implementation support for the solution as well as maintenance of operational services.  

2. To approve a £249k extension to contract value (50% of the original) to Connect Programme Director Role contract with Ernst & Young LLP (new contract value £748k).  

3. To approve the direct award of a contract for CONNECT Interfaces deliverables to Ernst & Young LLP via the Technology Services 3 Framework with a total contract value of £5.000m and a term of 1 year.  

4. To approve the direct award of a contract for CONNECT Business change deliverables to Ernst & Young LLP via MCF3 Framework with a total contract value of £5.250m and a term of 1 year.  

5. To approve the direct award of a contract for CONNECT Technical consultancy resources to CGI Inc. via SPF2 Framework with a total contract value of £1.700m and a term of 1 year.   

6. To approve the direct award a contract for CONNECT PMO resource to Finyx Consulting Limited via MCF3 Framework with a total contract value of £4.65m and a 1-year term.  

7. To approve the direct award of a contract for retaining data integration resources to SAS Software Ltd via G-Cloud Framework with a total contract value of £810k and a term of 1 year.   

8. To approve the direct award of a contract for SMS messaging service to Government Digital Service, Cabinet Office with a total contract value of £2.000m and a term of 1 year with extension options up to 5 years.   

9. To approve the delegation of authority to the Director of Commercial Service to award contract value and duration extensions to the above contracts. This will be subject to a ‘dual key’ arrangement in which the Director of Commercial Services and a Senior System Owner will jointly act as signatories in these approvals. Note: Prior to implementation of Drop 2, the Senior System Owner will be deemed to be the Senior Responsible Officer.  

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

1. Introduction and background  

1. The CONNECT programme is the biggest technology enabled transformation the Met has ever undertaken – transforming how data is captured, recorded, used and thought about; ultimately changing how London is policed. It will see the deployment of the full ’CONNECT’ solution; a new core policing system for the Met replacing 8 siloed and disconnected systems with one integrated and searchable system for managing end to end operational processes.  

2. It offers a single place to enter and retrieve information and allows officers and staff to link information together, meaning more data can be unlocked than ever before. This will save officers and staff time by only requiring singular entry of data, reducing the chance of intelligence failures through data not being connected and making it easier to search information and reduce duplication of records in the system. 

3. In order to manage the associated risk of CONNECT implementation and limit operational impact, the deployment strategy was to implement the solution via a series of ‘Drops’. Drop 1 (Case, Custody & Property) was deployed in November 2022 and Drop 2 (Intelligence, Investigation & Proactive Management Plans) is scheduled to Go Live in February 2024. 

4. From a financial perspective, the CONNECT programme has been the subject of 2 Full Business Cases (FBCs) since its inception. FBC 1 at Contract Award and initiation of the programme was approved by the MPS and MOPAC in April 2018. FBC2 was approved in February 2022 and secured additional funding for the programme, given delays and additional scope including the disruptive impact of the COVID pandemic. 

2. Issues for consideration 

1. In order to complete the deployment of CONNECT and successfully run the solution, additional funding is required. The subject of this latest proposal, referred to as Full Business Case 3 (FBC3), provides an update to the previous business case. FBC3 seeks to secure the funding required following a 9-month delay to Drop 2 (from May 2023 to February 2024) and for additional scope introduced to provide capabilities not available from the CONNECT product but available in some legacy systems and essential for the MPS (e.g. enhanced Search Functionality and Audit). It also includes run costs post-implementation following a review of the necessary support needed now that Drop 1 has been fully operational in the MPS for 12 months since November 2022. This will include ongoing enhancement of the system to enable operational improvements to be achieved. This document makes the case and seeks approval for the funding required to support programme delivery and the operation of the CONNECT solution in support of MPS frontline.  

2. The investment required to complete the implementation of CONNECT and to sustain operation is driven by six main factors: 

1. Changes in programme delivery approach, specifically a change in the delivery of training to 22,500 users, providing classroom-based training in addition to online training and impacting on revenue. A change in training approach is required to successfully deliver the benefits of the programme and drive adoption of CONNECT across the organisation. During the early phases of Drop 1 Go-Live, it became clear that the exclusive use of a digital approach to training delivery was not sufficient to drive adoption across the organisation. As a consequence, a decision was taken to focus on face-to-face training to improve learning and adoption results. The new proposal defines training for 23,500 officers and staff (2 days of face-to-face training). 

2. Changes due to programme delays incurred to date, with Drop 2 implementation date movement from May 2023 to February 2024, impacting both capital and revenue. This delay is due to Drop 1 issues requiring the delivery of a series of patches and delivery focus by NEC impacting the Drop 2 delivery schedule with Drop 1 continuing to operate under Early Life Support (ELS). This meant that the criteria necessary for CONNECT to operate under ‘business as usual’ support arrangements had not been met. There remain three ‘patches’ to be deployed during November – December 2023 to rectify issues in Live Service.  

3. Changes in scope so as to maintain critical MPS operational capabilities at go-live, impacting both capital and revenue. Whilst the programme will largely be delivered using the integrated CONNECT solution, specific additions will be required to meet the complex needs of the MPS and maintain required capabilities. These additions comprise specialist software to enhance the operation of the system for specific groups of users but do not compromise the integrated nature of the system. In summary, these are as follows: 

1. Advanced Search - ThoughtSpot has been incorporated into the solution to enable complex end user queries (which are performed today) to be conducted in a simple and user-friendly way. 

2. System Audit Functions – Splunk will be implemented to meet the rigorous policing requirements of system auditing, and compliance standards (including identification of inappropriate use).  

3. Application Performance Monitoring - CONNECT is a mission critical system and it is essential to maintain full planned availability and performance. An independent review concluded that enhanced systems monitoring should be incorporated and Dynatrace, a class leading third party solution, is being incorporated in the CONNECT environment. 

4. Changes to arrangements for post Go-Live support, impacting on revenue. Since publication of FBC2, consideration has been given to the arrangements to maintain, enhance and govern (“support”) the CONNECT solution when it enters operational service. This is driven through experiences supporting the solution post Drop 1, an assessment of NEC obligations and recognition of the service risk the MPS will need to accept. FBC2 provided an extensive view of the Technology and Operational costs required to support CONNECT, including: 

1. NEC Licensing Support and Maintenance costs. 

2. Capgemini Infrastructure Support/Maintenance. 

3. In-Housing Interface Support and Licensing. 

5. Funding for these services is accurate and reflects a continued need. However, wider lessons learned following Drop 1, the volume of change expected to the application in service and the complexities of the operating ecosystem have created a requirement to strengthen the key resources (specifically Service & System Integration) required to manage change to the solution but also provide additional resource to provide user support, manage NEC, and ensure data processing compliance.    

6. Establishment of a change fund to accommodate MPS-led transformation, continuous improvement, and mandatory change, impacting on capital. NEC is responsible for providing (and funding) changes in core functionality, security or reliability enhancements, and other changes that may result from legislative change. These changes are planned and delivered through a NEC coordinated national roadmap. It is anticipated that MPS will require additional changes to be delivered to meet MPS specific priorities, and it is proposed that a CONNECT Change Management Fund is established.  

7. The types of spend expected to be include: 

8. Changes resulting in new functionality required post Go-Live (e.g., PND Post D2 accreditation, Mobile delivery, MI). 

9. Changes required to accommodate integration with new systems, including national systems such as Command & Control (C&C) and National Law Enforcement Data Programme (NLEDP). 

3. Changes to infrastructure, including networks, hosting and additional hardware. 

4. Estimated costs include provision for acceptance, testing and integration of 2 major and 2 minor CONNECT releases each year, and MPS specific enhancements. 

5. The estimates have been based upon a conservative benchmark based on a percentage of total development costs.  

6. DDaT will conduct a commercial review after year 1 of service operation to review actual spend and profile anticipated spend across year 2-4. This will be controlled via a Transition Plan with reporting into DDaT Board for oversight and assurance. Future year forecasts will also be reviewed at this point. 

8. Other smaller additional items such as IIP stabilisation and addition of risk provisions, impacting both capital and revenue. This category of cost comprises enabling items required to deliver CONNECT, including:   

1. Legacy applications modifications to accommodate CONNECT 

2. Condor (data centre) migration 

3. CONNECT to TFL data feed 

4. CONNECT Support Team (Helpdesk) hardware 

5. Other items below c.£250k 

6. A risk provision, built up on an individual line-item basis across delivery workstreams. 

9. The CONNECT solution contributes to the MOPAC Police & Crime Plan 2022-25 as it will transform how the MPS captures, manages and exploits its operational data to carry out its key mission of keeping London safe. At its core, the solution will enable the majority of the Met’s operational processes, from receiving allegations of crime through its public website, to standardising its risk management procedures, establishing effective tasking and caseload management to initiating proactive operations and monitoring their outcomes. 

10. This solution will help to reduce the amount of time officers have to interrogate different systems, ensuring that they can achieve an end- to- end service from crime reporting and investigation, gathering information, to creating and presenting case files for courts. 

3. Financial Comments  

1. A total £106.6M worth of budgetary increase is requested, of which 47% (£49.9M) relates to Capital and the balance of £56.7M to Revenue. The additional investment will be included in the Medium-Term Financial Plan in the case of the latter and the Capital Plan for the Capital element. 

2. The rest of this information is contained in the restricted section of the report. 

4. Legal Comments 

1. This information is contained in the restricted section of the report. 

5. Commercial Issues  

1. The paper requests approval for budget to allow extension and further award of contracts to 2 suppliers.  The approval to award is within delegated authority levels.   

2. Further information is contained in the restricted sections of the report.  

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 programme meets its compliance requirements. 

4. A DPIA has been completed for this programme. The programme will ensure a privacy by design approach, which will allow the MPS to find and fix problems at the early stages of any project, ensuring compliance with GDPR. DPIAs support the accountability principle, as they will ensure the MPS complies with the requirements of GDPR and they demonstrate that appropriate measures have been taken to ensure compliance. 

7. Equality Comments  

1. 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. 

2. The Information Assurance and Information Rights unit within MPS have been consulted to ensure the project meets its compliance requirements. An Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) is in place and is subject to a further update. There remains ongoing work between the MPS and NEC to ensure that Assistive Technology requirements are appropriately factored in to the product and any subsequent roll out of the solution. 

3. There is ongoing detailed work and engagement with all key stakeholders to ensure that the core CONNECT solution as well as the training material currently being completed meets accessibility criteria. There may be issues outstanding which require further investigation as the programme completes the final end to end testing of assistive technology components, these will be addressed at this stage. 

8. Background/supporting papers 

None.