Police force trio to make decision on G4S outsourcing plan

The three police forces of Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire could decide the future of their plans for the outsourcing of organisational support services on Monday. The three forces, which work closely together to share their services and drive support savings, are planning a meeting of their strategic alliance joint working group at which a recommendation may be made on the future of the forces' possible engagement with the Lincolnshire police framework which has G4S as its supplier. A spokesman for Hertfordshire insisted that no decision had yet been made, despite some reports indicating that the three forces are considering abandoning plans to outsource IT and other back office jobs to G4S, after the company faced criticism for not providing enough security guards for the Olympic Games. The three forces had been considering the outsourcing move to try to make savings of £73m after concluding that the savings cannot be made by sharing services alone. Discussions over a possible business plan have been continuing in recent weeks, the spokesman said. In a statement, the three forces said: "The chief constables of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire police forces have met and discussed at considerable length the current situation regarding the work to develop a full business case for the outsourcing of organisational support services through the Lincolnshire police contract with G4S. "Their meeting enabled them to consider the findings of the review of the contract to date and assess how it could meet the complex requirements of the three forces. The chief constables are continuing this discussion and will share their assessment with police authority members at a meeting of the strategic alliance joint working group early next week. "Any changes to the current programme would have formally to be considered in public by each police authority. Until the police authorities have decided how they want to proceed it is not appropriate to comment further." In terms of IT, the budget for the three forces is close to £20m a year and they employ about 175 IT staff. If agreed by all three police authorities, the earliest that outsourced services could be in place would be April 2013. The original plan to consider outsourcing to G4S was expected, given that the original Lincolnshire police authority procurement was undertaken with the support of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire and other forces. The Lincolnshire police business transformation partnership arrangement with G4S lasts 10 years with an option to extent for a further five years, and is worth an estimated £200m. This article is published by Guardian Professional . Join the Guardian Government Computing Network free to receive regular emails on the issues at the top of the professional agenda.