Committee publication · Correspondence · 28 April 2026
Letter from the Permanent Secretary relating to the Police National Database transformation programme 22.04.2026
From: Home Affairs Committee
Summary
Permanent Secretary Gareth Davies responds to Home Affairs Committee questions on the collapsed Police National Database (PND) 1.5 transformation programme. The £35.1m cloud migration project failed due to incorrect delivery assumptions (80% code reuse expected, only 20% achieved), emerging in July 2024. The Home Office has exited the supplier contract, paused the transformation in June 2025, and will bring PND in-house with £20.3m stabilisation work expected to extend service life 5–10 years.
Key findings
- PND 1.5 transformation collapsed due to fundamental delivery assumptions proving wrong: code reuse was 20% instead of expected 80%, creating £26m additional cost and 15–18 month delay
- £35.1m spent on transformation before pause in June 2025; total five-year spend (FY21/22–FY25/26) was £146.6m including £111.5m annual run costs
- Home Office and supplier could not agree on revised timeline, testing scope, or risk allocation from July–December 2024; negotiated contract exit concluded without financial reclamation to avoid costly litigation
- Service will transition in-house over 18 months with £20.3m stabilisation investment; current availability above 99% over past six months with low major failure risk assessed
- Long-term PND strategy and funding allocation remain undecided; responsibility expected to transfer to new National Police Service but timing and detail to be determined
Tone
FactualTopics
Key actors
Gareth Davies, Dame Karen Bradley MP, Home Office, National Police Chiefs' Council, Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority
Notable line
“Both the Home Office and the supplier worked closely together for many months to understand the depth of the challenges.”
Key Quotes
“Delivery assumptions have proven incorrect: c.80% code reuse was expected, but only c.20% was reusable, meaning additional! work that would push the June 2025 target beyond reach without significant extra time and funding.”
“Issues emerged in July 2024. From July-December 2024, the Home Office worked with the supplier to replan, and this indicated c.£26m additional cost and a c.15-18-month delay.”
“By May 2025, around £35.1m had been spent before the transformation was paused.”
“The two sides could not come to an agreement, however, in particular about the contracted scope, time required for testing and allocation of residual risk.”
“The cloud migration work did not result in any improvements to the PND, as it was not completed.”
“The expected costs of the stabilisation work are £20.3m. These upgrades are expected to extend service continuity by 5-10 years by tackling technical debt, improving resilience and capacity, and supporting enhanced analytics and safeguarding.”
Source · parliament.uk record ↗