Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is their latest assessment of costs for the Emergency Services Network replacement service for Airwave; when the first police force will receive a functioning radio system; and when the roll out to all forces will be completed.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

In its 2021 Business Case the Programme estimated the total cost of providing critical emergency services communications between 2015/16 and 2036/37 to be £11.3bn. This is the combined cost of running the current system Airwave while developing ESN. A revised Programme Business Case setting out a new timetable and costs is expected early next year. This will reflect an extension of the evaluation period from FY2036/37 to FY2043/44 and extended run period for legacy Airwave systems by approximately three years. We plan for the network to be live for first users in early 2027 and are targeting full transition by end of 2029.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is the current status of the Emergency Services Network replacement project for Airwave.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Home Office has been in the process of two major procurements for ESN. The Mobile Services contract was awarded to BT/EE by direct award in July 2024 and the second contract is nearing finalisation and expected to be ready by the end of this year. Details will be published on the government commercial disclosure portal Contracts Finder. Airwave will be shut down only when it is safe to do so.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether the rate of recruitment and resignation of police firearms officers has remained stable over the past five years.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Home Office collects and publishes information annually on the number of armed police officers in the Police use of firearms statistics. The latest available data is for the year ending 31 March 2024 and can be accessed at at Gov.UK.

There were a total of 6,473 armed officers as at 31 March 2024, a decrease of 3% (-178) compared with 31 March 2023 (6,651).

Of the 6,473 armed officers, 5,861 were operationally deployable armed officers (91%). This proportion was the same as the year ending 31 March 2023, and 2 percentage points lower than in the year ending 31 March 2022 (93%).

As at 31 March 2024, there were 3% fewer (-177) operationally deployable armed officers than in the year ending 31 March 2023. ‘Operationally deployable’ excludes officers who were absent due to sickness (long or short-term) or on restricted duties.

A 5-year armed officer uplift programme, with the aim to train and equip 1,000 extra firearm officers was announced on 1 April 2016 (separate from the recent recruitment of an additional 20,000 officers). Following the programme, the number of operationally deployable armed officers increased from 5,639 on 31 March 2016, to a peak of 6,621 on 31 March 2019 (Figure 4).

Since 31 March 2019, the number of operationally deployable armed officers has decreased by 760 (to 5,861 on 31 March 2024). This is the fifth consecutive year that the number has decreased. The number of operationally deployable armed officers is 4% (222) higher than before the armed officer uplift programme (31 March 2016).

Found: . • The Lord Hogan-Howe of Sheffield QPM – Non-Executive Board Member (until 26 August 2024). • Henry