Firearms Asset Management System

This paper seeks approval for an investment and on-going support for the implementation of a firearms asset management system. The system will improve the process for the issue and return of weapons, improve the management information on the assets, and provide the ability to link to a digital training record to ensure officers being issued the assets are authorised and correctly trained. The capital investment sought is £2,093,000 with £670,000 of revenue costs over a five year period. Included in these figures the paper seeks approval for the procurement of the system and on-going support at £904,000.

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to:

1. Approve, in retrospect, the procurement process via CDW (Value Added Reseller) VAR IT Framework, for; Lot 1 an Asset Management System (AMS) and Lot 2 (training records) (as a forced variant) for a COTS (Commercial Off The Shelf) solution up to a value of £904,000 for a four year (plus 1 year) contract term.

Subject to the approval of recommendation 1;

2. Approve the award of the contract for the provision of the Asset Management System (AMS) to Innaxys Ltd for Lots 1 and Lot 2 for £904,000 (for a four year term (plus 1 year extension)) and delegate the entering into the contract to the Director of Commercial Services.

3. Approve this project to proceed to Gate 4 (‘Go Live’ Decision)

4. Approve the spend Capital of £2,093,000, which is contained within the approved capital programme.

Approve to spend Revenue of £670,000 over a period of 5 years, from 2021/22 to 2025/26 (£149,000 per annum), split proportionally across Met Ops, SO, and FLP, which has been agreed by all business areas.

1. Introduction and background

1.1. This paper sets out proposals to address the lack of an automated firearm asset management system (AMS).

2. Issues for consideration

2.1. The lack of an automated firearm asset management system (AMS) results in an inefficient process for the issuing and return of firearms/tasers to armouries. The current process relies on a manual presentation of a personal card to authenticate approval status.

2.2. The proposed investment will provide an improved process for the issuing and return of weapons and tasers, and there will be non-cashable benefits from a reduction in officers overseeing the processes. There will be better management information for the planning for or responding to incidents, and the investment will enable a link to a digital training record to ensure those authorised and correctly trained can deploy with the weapon/taser.

3. Financial Comments

3.1. The estimated capital investment to implement this solution is £2,093,000 which will be met from within the approved Capital Programme.

3.2. The estimated revenue costs over a five year period is £670,000 which will be met from within the MPS existing resources.

4. Legal Comments

4.1. The Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (“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 £189,330 or above shall be procured in accordance with the Regulations. This report confirms the value of the proposed contract exceeds this threshold.

4.2. The MPS assure that the route to market is compliant with the Regulations.

4.3. Paragraph 4.13 of the MOPAC Scheme of Delegation and Consent provides that the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime (DMPC) has delegated authority to approve all requests to go out to tender for contracts of £500,000 or above.

4.4. Paragraph 7.23 of the MOPAC Scheme of Delegation and Consent provides that the Director of Strategic Procurement 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 Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime reserves the right to call in any MPS proposal to award a contract for £500,000 or above.

5. Commercial Issues

5.1. This proposal includes the procurement of design, implementation of a host environment, data migration and interface, and the installation of hardware for scanning and storage. There will be an on-going support service for a period of up to 5 years.

5.2. Due to an error in the interpretation of the scheme of delegation the MPS were advised that the Outline Business Case including the initiation of procurement did not require MOPAC approval and the MPS progressed with the procurement. This paper now seeks approval for the route to market and approval of the contract award following a compliant procurement process.

6. GDPR and Data Privacy

6.1. MOPAC will adhere to the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018 and ensure that any organisations who are commissioned to do work with or on behalf of MOPAC are fully compliant with the policy and understand their GDPR responsibilities.

6.2. The MPS assure that a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) has been completed for this project and it is currently with the MPS Information Sharing Support Unit (ISSU) and the Data Protection Officer for final sign off. The project 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.

7. Equality Comments

7.1. 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.

7.2. An Equalities Impact Assessment (EIA) has been completed which the MPS assure concluded that no protected category was affected by the proposal.

8. Background/supporting papers

• Appendix 1 Asset Management System for firearms and Taser Final Business Case