NPIA extends Holmes 2 agreement

The National Policing Improvement Agency has added three years to its agreement with Unisys for the support of its major crimes enquiry system.

It has signed a contract with the company, with a value of up to £12m, to provide support and maintenance under the Holmes 2 Software Supply Enabling Agreement. The agreement, which enables police forces using the system to call off professional services, licences and enhancements, will now run until September 2011.

A spokesperson for the NPIA told GC News: "The contract has been awarded to allow sufficient time for the NPIA to run a competitive procurement under the Official Journal of the European Union for the replacement of Holmes 2, which will need to be delivered within the timescales of the Holmes 2 Enabling Agreement extension. At present the strategic requirements for the replacement system are being developed in line with the national Information Systems Improvement Strategy programme, recently launched following the home secretary's review of IT in policing.

"The NPIA is currently developing the convergence roadmap for IT in policing to 2015 and all future major police IT procurements for national systems will be reviewed and delivered in accordance with this programme."

Holmes 2 is used by the police service to run major crime enquiries and manage casualty bureaus following major incidents.

This article was originally published at Kablenet.

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