Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much the new Emergency Services Network (a) was originally projected to cost and (b) is currently projected to cost as of 19 October 2022.

The estimated cost of providing critical emergency services communications between 2015/16 and 2036/37 is £11.3bn, as per the plan agreed in the July 2021 Full Business Case.

Within this total, the cost of the programme to deliver ESN is £1.6bn, compared with the original estimate of £1.2bn. The £11.3bn also includes Airwave and Legacy contracts, and the ongoing costs of the replacement ESN service.

This assumed Airwave and Legacy system costs of approximately £450m annually (before any impact from the CMA findings), compared with ESN at around £250m per annum.

There are a number of elements that may impact the overall delivery cost and time.

This includes but is not limited to the recent provisional CMA findings into Motorola’s dual role as owner of Airwave and supplier on the programme and any extension to the Airwave shutdown date beyond the end of 2026, as well as contract negotiations for both Lot 2 and 3 as these are due to end in 2024.

Our goal is to work to deliver ESN as swiftly and safely as possible.