ESN: Challenges have led to anticipated delay

Home Office permanent secretary Philip Rutnam (pictured), and Stephen Webb, senior responsible owner ESMCP, answered questions on a range of topics including device procurement and revised costings in the light of the deployment’s shifting timescale. It is the third such parliamentary session since the ESN core contracts were awarded in 2015.

Proceedings began with Rutnam discussing the Home Office’s ongoing inability to give a start date for transition to the new network following the previous indication of a likely delay. This is something, he said, which would become clearer by the end of the programme’s current review of the project, but he anticipated it would be longer than the originally estimated nine months.

Giving the reasons for this, Rutnam said: “As time has gone on, we’ve learnt more about the challenges of the software design, and the relationship with our suppliers has evolved. We’ve [therefore] come to see the need for a new approach to schedule and cost.”