EMERGENCY SERVICES MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS

Rating: Compared to financial year 24/25 Q4, the NISTA/SRO Delivery Confidence Assessment (DCA) rating at 25/26 Q4 remained at AMBER after the NISTA Gate 0 review in November 2025.

Schedule: Compared to financial year 24/25-Q4, the project's end-date at 25/26-Q4 remained the same.

Cost: Compared to financial year 24/25-Q4, the projects departmentally agreed Whole Life Cost at 25/26 remained at £19,181m. This is due to them being based on the same 2024 business case. An updated business case which would amend these whole life cost figures is still awaiting final Treasury approval but will be reflected in future submissions.

Source: NISTA Major Projects Annual Report 2025-26 (data)

Rating: Compared to financial year 23/24-Q4, the Infrastructure Project Authority's Delivery Confidence Assessment rating at 24/25-Q4 increased from RED to AMBER. This is primarily due to the following factors‚ ESMCP has undertaken Project Assurance Reviews (PAR), throughout its lifecycle, the last was conducted in June 2024, as part of the 2024 Programme Business Case (PBC) governance and approvals process. The June 2024 PAR report initially gave the programme a RED rating, due solely to the risk of legal challenge from Motorola, commenting that in all other areas the programme had made excellent progress. The report made a number of recommendations to manage the risk, ahead of publication of the Voluntary Ex-Ante Transparency Notice (VEAT) for the Mobile Services direct award. Programme senior leaders took the recommended actions and the VEAT was issued on 31 July 2024, without challenge. At the follow-up Cabinet Office Assurance of Action Plan (AAP) review, on 9 September 2024, the review team recognised the exceptional progress the programme had made to mitigate the risk of legal challenge, recommending an improved AMBER rating, which allowed the Major Projects Review Group (MPRG) meeting to take place on 26 September 2024. MPRG accepted the recommended AMBER rating, approved the PBC, both Mobile Services [MS] and User Services [US] contract awards which led to the Chief Secretary of the Treasury’s approval of the PBC and MS/US contract awards, which was endorsed on 14 November 2024.

Schedule: Compared to financial year 23/24-Q4, the project's end-date at 24/25-Q4 increased from 31/12/2026 to 01/05/2030. This is primarily due to the following factors‚ During 2021, delays in the delivery of the Motorola services under the User Services contract meant that full transition was no longer possible before the end of December 2022. Consequently, during 2021 the Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP) extended the Airwave contracts from the scheduled National Shut Down Target Sate (NSDTD) of 31 December 2022 to a target date of 31 December 2026. At the time it was believed that this extension would ensure continuity of service and enable sufficient time to transition from Airwave to the Emergency Services Network (ESN). With continued delays in the delivery of the Lot 2 contract during the early part of 2022, Motorola decided it did not want to extend the provision of Lot 2 beyond 2024. In April 2022, Motorola approached ESMCP to explore the opportunity of a mutually agreed full termination of Lot 2, which was agreed on 19 December 2022. These delivery delays and Motorola’s early exit led to the requirement to re-procure the User Service contract. In late 2024 a new User Services contract was successfully awarded IBM, leading to a new delivery plan and revised target dates for Airwave Shutdown (ASD) and transition complete at the end of 2029, affecting programme closure, now 01 May 2030.

Cost: Compared to financial year 23/24-Q4, the project's departmentally agreed Whole Life Cost at 24/25-Q4 (measured in £m) increased from 11263 to 19180. This is primarily due to the following factors‚ • Evaluation period of the project was extended from FY36/37 to FY43/44. • Core Costs increasing due to higher inflation, increased coverage build, replacement of User Services Provider and additional capital refresh costs. • Airwave Shut Down is now targeted by 31 Dec 2029

Source: NISTA Annual Report 2024-25 (data)

Rating: Compared to financial year 22/23-Q4, the Infrastructure Project Authority's Delivery Confidence Assessment rating at 23/24-Q4 remained at Red. This is primarily due to the following factors. The Programme has closed most of the recommendations from the last Cabinet Office led independent Project Assurance Reviews (PAR) carried out in January and followed-up in April 2023. A meeting with the Cabinet Office Major Projects Review Group (MPRG) took place in May 2023 where the Programme's Commercial Strategy was endorsed. The programme is working through the re-procurement of the User Services contract, and the extension to the Mobile Services contract. Actions are underway to prepare for the next PAR and the necessary governance and approvals following completion of the commercial work, later this year.

Schedule: Compared to financial year 22/23-Q4, the project's end-date at 23/24-Q4 remained schedule to finish on 2026-12-31. This is primarily due to the following factors. ESMCP is updating it's Programme Business Case (PBC) to gain further endorsement on the direction of travel and agree the delivery timetable and costs to complete the programme. Furthermore, with a new User Services supplier expected to be procured later this year, our forecasts for completing the transition from Airwave to ESN and then the shutdown date for Airwave is yet to be confirmed.

Cost: Compared to financial year 22/23-Q4, the project's departmental-agree Whole Life Cost at 23/24-Q4 remained at 11263m. This is primarily due to the following factors. The Whole life budget cost is based on the last approved full business case July 21. Whole life costs include ESN programme, ongoing run and legacy Airwave costs. The full business case is currently been updated.

Source: IPA Annual Report 2023-24 (data)