A LOSS of trust and disagreements about what had to be delivered have been blamed for the collapse of a project to build a £60 million IT system for Police Scotland, according to a new report. And Audit Scotland says there’s an “urgent need” for the force’s IT needs and their delivery to be re-assessed.
The auditor said it found good practice was followed in the planning and procurement of the i6 programme, which was expected to generate £200m savings over 10 years for the single police force and the Scottish Police Authority (SPA).
Accenture, the contractor that won the contract, however, underestimated the complexity of the programme and the resources needed to develop it, said the report. It added that Police Scotland disagreed with Accenture about whether the system would fulfil contract requirements, which led to a rapid loss of trust.
It said: “The i6 programme had difficulties almost immediately after award of the contract. Within weeks of starting the high-level design phase in July 2013, there was a differences in opinion about the search function within i6. The i6 programme team believed the functionality of Accenture’s solution did not meet the requirements it had agreed in the contract.”
Accenture was challenged, but said the system would be delivered. However, fundamental flaws and serious errors only became clear when it was passed to Police Scotland for testing in August 2015, the auditors said. The programme was terminated in July 2016 and the SPA agreed a £24.7m settlement from Accenture. This refunded the £11.1m in payments to date as well as a £13.6m settlement.
Some benefits of police reform have since been delayed, said the report, and have wider implications for the modernisation of Scotland’s justice system and delivery of the Scottish Government’s justice digital strategy.
Caroline Gardner, Auditor General for Scotland, said: “Given the role that i6 was to play in police reform, there is an urgent need for a frank assessment of Police Scotland’s IT requirements and how these can be delivered alongside the vision set out in the recent Policing 2026 draft strategy.”
Martin Leven, Police Scotland’s director of ICT, said: “i6 was an important element of Police Scotland’s ICT plans - but not the sole element. Since 2013, more than 30 national applications have been implemented successfully.”
SPA chief executive John Foley said: “While policing has no plans to embark again on a single ICT programme as complex and bespoke as i6, there have been a number of improvements made in the last four years that provide greater assurance going forward.”
Scottish Labour has urged the SNP to learn the lessons of the Audit Scotland review.
The party’s deputy Justice spokesperson Mary Fee said: “The potential benefits of police reform have, at the very least, now been delayed. Potential savings of £200m have also been lost – money that could have been used to give much-needed support to the hard-working men and women of our police force.”
Scottish Liberal Democrat justice spokesperson Liam McArthur MSP added: “This report shows a project that was doomed to fail from day one... SNP ministers and the police need to explain what lessons have been learned from this sorry episode.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “W e welcome the publication of the Auditor General’s report, which helpfully outlines a number of areas of good practice as well as factors behind the decision to terminate the project, enabling police and other public services to learn from these conclusions.
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