POLICE officers are still struggling to communicate with colleagues across the country following the botched introduction of a £60 million national computer network.
A damning report into the collapse of the Police Scotland i6 programme said that the force has been left with a patchwork of obsolete and poorly integrated systems, with no prospect of the situation improving on the horizon after the collapse of the i6 programme.
Audit Scotland's inquiry into the debacle, which saw the scheme terminated in 2016, said that it had wider implications for the modernisation of Scotland's justice system and the delivery of the Scottish Government's justice digital strategy.
READ MORE: Labour's Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell criticises 'discourteous' Tweeting in House of Commons
It found that the project was scrapped amid a loss of trust and disagreements between the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) and contractor Accenture, who failed to underestimated the complexity of the programme and the resources needed to develop it.
There was also over-reliance on a plan to adapt a system developed by the company for the Guardia Civil in Spain, which was found to be a bad fit for Police Scotland's needs.
The report called for an honest assessment of the way forward amid an "urgent" need to develop a system which can be used across the whole force.
It said: "Police officers and staff continue to struggle with out-of-date, inefficient and poorly integrated systems.
"This also hinders how Police Scotland interacts and shares information and intelligence with the other parts of the justice system.
"There is an urgent need to determine what the next steps should be, and to carry out an honest assessment of how to procure, develop and deliver the much-needed police IT system."
Auditor General for Scotland Caroline Gardner added: "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."
Andrea MacDonald, Chairwoman of the Scottish Police Federation warned that fundamental change was needed.
She said: “We did not need Audit Scotland to tell us that not having integrated IT leaves police officers struggling with inefficient and antiquated systems. This is known to every police officer in the country who live with this reality every day.
"Decades of collective poor decisions on IT provision cannot be put right on a piecemeal basis but sadly the police capital settlement provides little opportunity to make the fundamental changes required.”
Major flaws with i6 became clear when it was passed to Police Scotland for testing in August 2015, the auditors said.
After the programme was terminated the SPA agreed a £24.7 million settlement from Accenture, including a refund of £11.1 million in payments to date as well as a £13.6 million settlement.
SPA chief executive John Foley welcomed the fact that the contractual settlement negotiated by the organisation resulted in no financial detriment to the public purse.
He 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.
"Clearly, there are lessons to learn across the public sector on large ICT projects and we look forward to Audit Scotland's broader findings in May."
Martin Leven, director of ICT at Police Scotland, said: "i6 was an important element of Police Scotland's ICT plans, but not the sole element.
READ MORE: Labour's Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell criticises 'discourteous' Tweeting in House of Commons
"Since 2013, more than 30 national applications have been implemented successfully.
"This includes replacing or upgrading a significant amount of outdated hardware and real progress has been made towards the delivery of a new national network and standardised modern national desktop computers."
A Scottish Government spokesman said: "The report underlines the importance of modern technology in supporting police officers and their civilian counterparts to keep people safe and we welcome the SPA and Police Scotland's commitment to this through the Policing 2026 draft strategy.
"That long-term strategy will ensure operational and service objectives are more closely aligned to investment priorities and decisions."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel