back to article Police ICT company finally lurches off the ground

After a four-year gestation period, the body intended to help UK coppers better splash their £1bn a year in tech spend – the Police ICT Company – has finally got off the ground. The Association for Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) has approved the proposal first made by Home Secretary Theresa May in 2011 to establish the …

  1. Vimes

    Will this new organisation be subject to the Freedom of Information Act or will they escape having to respond to FoIA requests, like ACPO did before them?

    1. Tzhx

      A public body subject to the FOI act? You missed the "joke" icon on your post, I think.

  2. wyatt

    PCCs are elected so public officials rather than the ACPO which is a limited company. You'd hope that a public office would respond to FIO's would you!

    I wonder what else the new government will scrap, Airwaves replacement that can't currently handle voice communications is a strong bet!

    1. Vimes

      PCCs might be elected, but this new organisation that they created isn't, and exists as a commercial entity much like ACPO.

      1. wyatt

        Aha, that explains your initial post! Thanks

      2. asiaseen

        So is the solution to FoIA individual PCCs regarding their dealings with the new body?

  3. James 51

    I know quangos get bad publicity but there should be one that can advise the rest of the public sector on tech spend and implementation. Here's the catch, it should be staffed by IT professionals who know what they're talking about. If something goes wrong, they should review what happened and produce recommendations. If something fails a second time, then it's comfy cushion time.

    1. Vimes

      Here's the catch, it should be staffed by IT professionals who know what they're talking about.

      You could say the same of the ICO, since a lot of data protection these days involves IT of one sort or another.

      However they don't seem to have even one person working for them that has been educated to degree level in an IT related subject. Not one.

      Paying peanuts doesn't help of course, but if it can't be managed here then what hope is there for your idea to ever work?

      1. launcap Silver badge
        FAIL

        > However they don't seem to have even one person working for them

        >that has been educated to degree level in an IT related subject. Not one

        Or even someone who knows what they are talking about and/or doing..

        (Hint: a degree isn't needed in order to be IT-capable or competent. In support, the reverse is often true!

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      There was such a thing many years ago, although it was actually part of the civil service rather than a separate quango. At least some of the people working there were indeed competent IT professionals.

      Needless to say the group was disbanded in the 1980s (IIRC) as an impediment to the smooth negotiation of IT contracts with commercial organisations.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Bonfire of Public Money

    You can smell the bonfire of public money that will be burnt on this, and their fucked up ICT Projects - as said above, you need some IT Professionals, not clueless project managers.

    Understand there was a change in thinking eith the PCC's, getting rid of the former Police Authorities, however I can't get a grip of the wholesale wanton destruction of cross police agencies that supported Police Improvement like the former NPIA.

    it's not restricted to England either, with the disastrous, costly, highly disruptive ideologically driven creation of Police Scotland.

    http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/call-for-reform-of-failing-police-scotland-1-3718791

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So they merged PITO and CPTDA/centrex to form NPIA, then they reimaged NPIA back to the police college and now are recreating PITO. I wonder if they kept the old stationary.

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