Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she has taken to ensure the Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme delivers a cost effective network that meets the standards of security and resilience essential for mission-critical communications.

The Programme has undertaken an extensive market engagement exercise to help
determine the technical and commercial feasibility of the proposed Emergency
Services Network (ESN). The results of these industry soundings indicate that
it should be possible to move to Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) solution based
technologies that will be more cost effective and will allow the Emergency
Services communications to evolve in line with developments in the consumer
market. The outline business case, approved in March 2014, included costs for
the security and resilience enhancements required to provide the appropriate
service levels for ESN users.