£3.3m. invested in Enforcement ICT, 'one of worst seen'

Monday 10 December 2018

The States were not surprised to be told Guernsey Police's ICT system was one of the worst in the UK by a national inspector, according to the States Chief Information Officer, even though it has invested £3.3m. into it over the last four years.

But, being questioned in front of a scrutiny panel last week, Colin Vaudin said more than 20 separate projects have already been initiated in key areas to help improve the system.

IT was one key area that needed improvement according to the report by Her Majesty's Inspectorate for Constabularies - they called it "one of the worst systems they had seen". 

Head of Local Law Enforcement Patrick Rice concurred with the report, and said the poor state of their IT impacted both the efficiency and effectiveness of the police and border control.

Matthew Parr, the man who put the report together for HMIC, did emphasise to the scrutiny panel that Guernsey was not alone in having a poor IT system, saying it was not something that was very good very often. But he said, nonetheless, there was an affect on things on a practical level. 

In his words, Mr Vaudin was appointed to the States in 2014 as their Chief Information Officer to "find out what was really going on" with the government's ICT systems. He said: "I don't set a comparison with UK forces' systems, we want to ensure our law enforcement has the best tools to do their job.

"I think it is both an issue across Bailiwick Law Enforcement and the States, there are unacceptable situations occurring, but those problems are across the board. We are all working to balance the importance of Health & Social Care and Education - there is no priority for law enforcement."

Mr Vaudin said they carefully prioritised where they invested in IT to ensure the areas most in need were dealt with first. Since he started four years ago, he and his staff have spent £7.7m. on IT across the States and £3.3m. on IT in Bailiwick Law Enforcement. That money all comes from central funds and is granted by Policy & Resources.

"There has been a recognition by myself over a year ago that this isn't purely a case of throwing money at it. What we have to balance is the level of change," he said.

"We are focusing on getting everything to work, then prioritising what improvements would have the greatest operational advantages." 

Pictured: Colin Vaudin, Chief Information Officer at the States of Guernsey. Image from Startup Guernsey's Youtube Channel.