Mobile Tablet Device Refresh

This decision concerns the refresh of the current tablets used by frontline police officers with ruggedised business grade devices that provide a choice of two tablets and a more powerful, higher specification device to support higher adoption of mobile ways of working and drive operational efficiency and outcomes. The refresh of devices is within the services scope of the existing Digital Policing Towers contracts and will be delivered through this route.

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to:

1. Approve refresh of all current Dell tablets with higher specification, more powerful, ruggedised Panasonic 7” and 10” Toughbook devices via utilisation of £9.75m of the End User Services Equipment Hardware Charge (EHC).

2. Approve build, deployment, project management etc associated with rollout of the above ruggedised tablets and disposal of current Dell tablets at a capital cost of £2.88m fully funded from the MOPAC approved Digital Policing (DP) capital plan and budget.

3. Approve use of existing Digital Policing contracts to resource the project and procure tablet devices and peripherals.

4. Note Digital Policing will make provisions at a B/OCU level for tablet replacements at 4% failure rate, with local business groups to fund replacement device and device related peripheral costs outside of this provision.

5. Approve programme 13 Digital Experience Team will support tablet rollout and embed business change.

1. Introduction and background

1.1. The use of mobile devices to complete crime reports and admin ‘on the move’ is a commitment within the Police and Crime plan, the Met Direction and Digital Policing (DP) strategies.

1.2. In support of mobile working DP in 2017 deployed tablets and mobile applications to officers in Frontline Policing roles and beyond. During this time DP have worked with officers to embed mobile working across the frontline, adapting culture to adopt modern ways of working and incrementally improving technology to better meet needs of those using it.

1.3. The original tablet devices are now reaching the end of their 2-3 year lifetime, are no longer available for purchase and a replacement device is needed.

1.4. DP have undertaken a wide range of consultation, testing and trials with officers across all BCUs to select the proposed devices and a further trial is underway in two BCUs to refine the device configuration and scale the deployment process.

1.5. Feedback from trials is positive, demonstrating that officers find the devices easier to use, are able to create crime reports faster and more crime reports are created whilst on the move.

1.6. As well as improved experience for users the devices offer a number of other benefits such as being tougher, more easily serviceable, and having a longer expected lifetime of 4 to 5 years.

1.7. Overall it is expected the refresh of tablet devices will further build on the digital foundation provided so far, offering a much improved experience for officers, enabling completion of more reports in the field more quickly on a more reliable stable service than the current offering.

2. Issues for consideration

2.1. Future running costs will be managed in line with current budgets as the number of tablets will not change as a result of this decision, since the new Panasonic devices are replacing the legacy Dell tablets.

3. Financial Comments

3.1. The project to refresh tablets, monitors and docking stations in writing rooms and adapt charging cabinets to work with the new devices will cost:

o £2.88M of DP capital to fund non tablet device costs such as resources, EUS supplier charges, ecosystem changes including monitors and charging cabinets funded via the Digital Policing Capital budget. This is fully funded in the DP approved capital plan.

o £9.75M for ruggedized tablets funded via the EHC fund created in line with the current contract with DXC End User Services. This has already been paid through revenue expenditure as part of the DXC contract and is available to draw down for the replacement of devices. This will therefore have no budget impact.

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). Awards of public contracts for goods and/or services valued at £181,302 or above must be procured in accordance with the Regulations. The goods and services that form this proposal will be procured in accordance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015.

4.2. Part 2 identifies the approach to source the various components of the project. Each are confirmed to utilise existing MOPAC contracts as being compliant routes to market.

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 the procurement strategy for all revenue and capital contracts of a total value of £500,000 or above.

4.4. Paragraph 4.8 of the MOPAC Scheme of Delegation and Consent provides that the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime (DMPC) has delegated authority to approve business cases for revenue or capital expenditure of £500,000 or above.

5. Commercial Issues

5.1. The refresh of devices is within the services scope of the existing DP Towers contracts and will be delivered through this route.

5.2. Further information is contained within the restricted section of this report.

6. GDPR and Data Privacy

6.1. 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.

6.2. There are no new privacy issues created as this project will not introduce new, or alter any existing, systems that have already had a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) as part of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

7. Equality Comments

7.1. Equality Screening has shown that all tablet users will have an equal opportunity to access the new device, negating the likelihood of any disadvantage being suffered by persons with protected characteristics.

7.2. The options of two device sizes and the additional performance of the devices may allow a wider range of assistive technology and other adaptations to be used, providing a positive impact on inclusion.

7.3. An Equality Impact Assessment will be performed by the project.

8. Background/supporting papers

8.1. Report