Law enforcement technologyU.K. police procurement hub goes live

Published 15 August 2011

The U.K. launches a new, Amazon-style online procurement process which enables police forces to buy specified goods and services online; all forty-three U.K. police forces are expected to be using the hub by June 2012

The U.K. National Policing Improvement Agency’s (NPIA) on Friday launched a new, Amazon-style online procurement process which enables police forces to buy specified goods and services online.

Lincolnshire Police will be the first force to use the new National Police Procurement Hub (NPPH). The hub gives the police service the ability to select, purchase, and pay for a range of approved goods and services online from 500 suppliers, and is set to save the police service £30 million over six years. It will enable Lincolnshire to buy approved items such as IT, body armor, vehicles, and a whole range of other goods and services, at the touch of a button.

An NPIA release reports that this national system allows police forces to do the whole process of ordering, buying, invoicing, and paying online.

The NPIA says the new system harnesses the buying power of the police service in order to lower costs, improve supplier relationships while realizing greater efficiency in billing and processing transactions.

This new ACPO (Association of Chief Police Officers) endorsed initiative is being delivered by the NPIA in partnership with ProcServe, a company which provides electronic procurement products. The NPIA is in the process of rolling it out across all forty-three forces starting with Lincolnshire. All forces are expected to be using the hub by June 2012.

NPIA says that in addition to the £30 million cash saving other benefits include:

  • Making the procurement process more efficient by enabling forces to buy together, reducing costs
  • A centrally managed process saving forces time on managing their own procurement process
  • Providing forces with easy access to best value contracts
  • Enabling SMEs (Small and Medium sized Enterprises) and other suppliers to work more efficiently with the police service.

Sue Moffatt, head of Commercial and Procurement at the NPIA, said “It’s great to see this hugely beneficial service go live for the first time. The police service is committed to deliver significant savings from better procurement. It is absolutely vital that those charged with buying goods and services have access direct from their desktop to the tools that make them available quickly, and directly to their desktop, and now Lincolnshire does.

 

“The Hub complements existing procurement processes across the police service so forces do not need to invest in replacing current systems. It enhances existing processes and provides a simple online shopping system to access best value products and services.”

The National Police Procurement Hub project forms part of the Information Systems Improvement Strategy (ISIS),a reform program for the police service that is using IT to improve efficiency. This will release savings and deliver operational improvements across policing and into the wider criminal justice system.