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techUK welcomes the funding of collaborative and cost saving policing ICT projects from the Police Innovation Fund.

techUK is pleased with the announcement that the Home Office has awarded £70m to collaborative and cost saving policing ICT projects from the Police Innovation Fund. In a move that will benefit all 43 police forces in England and Wales, the projects the fund will support are expected to save taxpayers almost £250m in the first five years.

The Police Innovation Fund was set up in 2014 and is an annual initiative designed to encourage police forces to embrace new technology and ways of working. This year the fund received 166 bids, of which 71 were successful, demonstrating how police forces can save money through collaborative projects, utilising innovative technology to provide better value for the taxpayer.

techUK particularly welcomes the award of over £250,000 to the Metropolitan Police Service (in collaboration with Durham Police, Cambridgeshire Constabulary, the National Crime Agency and Bluelightworks) to fund development of policing IT standards. As techUK has consistently argued, most recently in our 'Breaking Down Barriers' report, it is very difficult for police forces to share information with other forces and agencies. The money awarded by the fund will build on existing policing and IT standards and help produce a framework to deliver and govern interoperability standards. Through this, the fund will help promote common data sharing between forces and other stakeholders and enable open IT policing solutions that are not "locked in" to proprietary vendors.

Successful bids include;

• £1.5m to Essex Police, along with six other forces, to build on the existing seven-force Athena collaboration system which will help the police and criminal justice system to work collectively, prioritise resources and improve problem-solving capabilities
• £1m to Surrey Police as the lead in an Emergency Services Collaboration Programme involving Sussex Police, Surrey Fire and the Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
• £300,000 to Sussex Police, in collaboration with 18 other forces, to the Minerva collaboration aimed at improving flexibility and choice around police IT

techUK is pleased to see the Police Innovation Fund being used for projects that will have a truly transformative effect on policing and help save money through collaboration and better use of technology.