Committee
Justice Sub-Committee on Policing 25 February 2016
25 Feb 2016 · S4 · Justice Sub-Committee on Policing
Item of business
Information and Communication Technology
I welcome everyone to the Justice Sub-Committee on Policing’s second meeting of 2016. I ask everyone to switch off mobile phones and other electronic devices. I have received apologies from Alison McInnes and Margaret Mitchell, but—by no mean feat—I welcome Graeme Pearson to the committee. Item 1 is on information and communication technology systems. I welcome Martin Leven, who is the director of ICT at Police Scotland; Chief Superintendent Hamish Macpherson, who is the i6 programme director; and Chief Superintendent Alan Speirs, from the contact, command and control division. You have all been here before, so you know how the whole thing works, which is excellent. If a member has not asked you a question directly and you want to say something, just indicate that and I will call you. Thank you for your written update on Police Scotland’s various ICT projects. We will go straight to questions. John Finnie has a look on his face. Does that mean that a question is brewing?
In the same item of business
The Convener (Christine Grahame)
SNP
I welcome everyone to the Justice Sub-Committee on Policing’s second meeting of 2016. I ask everyone to switch off mobile phones and other electronic devices...
John Finnie (Highlands and Islands) (Ind)
Ind
Good afternoon, gentlemen. A number of weeks ago, I was told that this was all off the rails—that it was not going well. Can you please give us a general ov...
The Convener
SNP
Are you talking about i6?
John Finnie
Ind
Yes.
Martin Leven (Police Scotland)
I was about to clarify that, because everything else is doing well.
The Convener
SNP
Were there other things on the rails? Laughter. Perhaps I should not have intervened.
Martin Leven
According to one of this morning’s national papers, we are about to cancel i6. That is not a fact; i6 is currently in commercial renegotiation with Accenture...
Chief Superintendent Hamish Macpherson (Police Scotland)
First, I will give a bit of background. In June, we received for user-acceptance testing a product on which product testing had been completed. Members will ...
The Convener
SNP
What was the number?
Chief Superintendent Macpherson
At one point, we ended up with 12 critical errors in the system—errors that stop one progressing through the system—when there should have been none. There w...
The Convener
SNP
The point is that some of the errors were critical.
Chief Superintendent Macpherson
Yes. There were a number of critical and major errors that were stopping us progressing through the application. At that point, the supplier was struggling t...
The Convener
SNP
What does that mean?
Chief Superintendent Macpherson
Basically, it means that the information that the supplier gave us was subject to commercial embargo: there is a limit to what I can say to the committee abo...
The Convener
SNP
Wait a wee minute. We were told that “a contract variation agreement was signed in April 2014 protecting the delivery of the original requirements at no ad...
Chief Superintendent Macpherson
Indeed—but we are still there. The original plan that the supplier provided to us asked for additional finance. Also, the timescales did not work out for us....
John Finnie
Ind
Do we have the right people sitting in front of us? Clearly, we want the practitioners, who will advise what is to be designed, and we want senior management...
Chief Superintendent Macpherson
We are having contractual discussions with the supplier. We are not at the lawyer stage yet. What is on the table is a potential way forward. We have just go...
John Finnie
Ind
At what point will we move beyond things being deemed to be commercially confidential? Our obligation as a committee is to understand the financial arrangeme...
Chief Superintendent Macpherson
We will end up walking out of the without prejudice period. A without prejudice stage is only a stage that allows you to have open negotiation without puttin...
John Finnie
Ind
Is that a new initiative or was it built into the contract? We all understand that these are incredibly complicated areas. Was some latitude allowed around t...
Chief Superintendent Macpherson
Every contract has within it a remedial process. It is an Office of Government Commerce model contract, so it is just following guidance, if you like. If we ...
John Finnie
Ind
What could go wrong? If the situation cannot be resolved, what will that mean? Will the whole thing be kaput?
Chief Superintendent Macpherson
I like to think that we now have a positive way forward. If we cannot reach a positive way forward, we will have to consider options. There is always the opt...
John Finnie
Ind
Can I have a final question please, convener? It is in relation to other decisions that have been made, including on control room closures—
The Convener
SNP
Before you move on, I want to talk more about i6.
John Finnie
Ind
The question is entirely related to i6.
The Convener
SNP
Okay.
John Finnie
Ind
Thank you, convener. If there is the potential for future problems with i6, this is clearly not the time for important decisions to be taken about command an...
Martin Leven
I will pick that up. I am keen that the committee understands the matter clearly. The i6 project does not have any major impact on the control room project, ...