IT supplier Qinetiq is suing theNational Policing
Improvement Agencyfor more than £5m after the
NPIA cancelled a UK-wide web portal designed to help the public
to report incidents and hate crimes online.
The website, cancelled last year, was also designed to allow the
public to contact the police during a terrorist incident such as
the London bombings, and would have provided secure communications
between police forces.
Qinetiq claimed that the NPIA, which oversees national police
IT, caused delay and hindrance which prevented the project for a
new police portal progressing.
Qinetiq said the agency had failed to provide consistent and
timely data needed during the project, and was "routinely failing
to return telephone calls, or answer emails and
correspondence".
The agency continued to act in breach of contract terms, it
claimed. Despite this Quinetiq said it continued to work to resolve
all outstanding minor issues, and that tests "re-affirm the
suitability of the Police Portal to go live".
The NPIA issued its own writ in February 2008, six months after
Qinetiq's, seeking more than £3m in loss and damage from the
supplier.
The agency claimed that Qinetiq's system testing had revealed a
high number of defects which the supplier was slow to fix.
"The test failure rate in key areas of functionality was
approximately 95.5% and it was evident that there were serious
issues with the design of the Police Portal including inefficient
processes and cumbersome navigation."
The system failed a test to mimic the use of BT portal after the
London bombings on 7 July 2005, the NPIA claimed. "The consequences
of the Portal failing in such a scenario was potentially very
serious," said the agency in its writ.
A judge has deferred a hearing on the
agency's writ indefinitely. A case based on
Qinetiq's writ is due to be heard in the High Court next
April.
A spokeswoman for the agency said, "The Police Portal remains
the subject of ongoing litigation in the Technology and
Construction Court. Each party's claim has been set out in its
respective statement of case, the most recent of which was filed by
NPIA on 19 May 2008."
A spokesman for Qinetiq said, "QinetiQ has issued legal
proceedings against the NPIA which are currently extant so we are
not in a position to comment further."
The portal was designed to replace a BT-supplied national
website, the Police Portal, to enable people to send information to
the police by e-mail and mobile phone.
See:
Summary of Qinetiq and NPIA writs with regard to the Police Portal,
on Tony Collins IT Projects blog