The findings of an internal audit review into the use of Scottish Government electronic purchase cards (ePC) have been published.
The review was commissioned by the First Minister following the public release of significant amounts of ePC spending data in August.
The review was undertaken by auditors in the Scottish Government Directorate for Internal Audit and Assurance, who have recommended improvements to policy and guidance, including enhanced monitoring and reporting, as well as a review of card usage and limits, and of categories of exclusions and out-of-scope expenditure.
The Permanent Secretary has also indicated that corporate guidance should be reviewed and updated to reflect the principle that all staff ‘away days’ should be carried out within public sector venues, with any exceptions requiring senior (director-level or above) approval of an appropriate business case.
An on-going review of the number of card holders has already resulted in a reduction of just under 10% since the summer, while mandatory training and follow-up refresher training will also be given to everyone with ePC responsibilities.
Electronic purchase cards are routinely used by the Scottish and UK Governments to pay for low value items such as catering, one-off supplies and training.
The Internal Audit team reviewed 194 transactions that had been the focus of reporting or commentary in news and social media. The audit of this sample found that all but one were appropriate expenditure under the current ePC policy. The transaction that was not appropriate was not made by the cardholder and was identified via banking system controls as fraudulent and the expenditure was refunded.
Among the purposes of the transactions identified through the audit were:
Nail polish; used by Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture (SASA) to distinguish items of glassware to prevent cross-contamination. Nail polish has to be used for this purpose under chemistry standard operating procedures.
Driving theory tests; these tests form part of the advanced driving course provided to staff who, as part of their job, spend a significant amount of time driving to rural and remote locations in Scotland.
Pregnancy tests; must be included as part of a ship’s medical stores for Marine Scotland vessels under Merchant Shipping legislation.
Asda Christmas purchases; Christmas lunch for Marine Scotland vessel crew working on Christmas Day.
Public Finance Minister Tom Arthur told GPSJ:
“The Scottish Government is focused on delivering the best value for money for taxpayers – something that is particularly important during a cost-of-living crisis, where both household and public sector budgets are tight. That is why the First Minister commissioned a review into ePC spending to ensure we have the right procedures in place.
“It is reassuring that the review concludes that the transactions audited were all appropriate under the current ePC policy, with the only exception being a fraudulent transaction carried out by a third party. I welcome the recommendations which aim to strengthen processes, including reviewing what may or may not be purchased through ePC, as well as improved monitoring and mandatory training.
“The use of ePC is standard practice across governments and it is vital that policies and guidance on usage remain as robust and transparent as possible. This will ensure civil servants can continue to carry out their daily duties effectively while maintaining the best use of public funds.”
SolarWinds Vice President, Government Affairs Chip Daniels
In early December 2020, nation-state threat actors exploited SolarWinds software in an unprecedented cyberattack – an event known today simply as SUNBURST.
It shone a light on the concerning new reality for the software industry – that previously unforeseeable attacks were becoming increasingly sophisticated, striking at the heart of the supply chains we all rely on.
SUNBURST was the first cyberattack to demonstrate this dangerous threat escalation. There have been many incidents since then that have highlighted both the scope and persistence of these cyberthreats, as well as the negative impacts they’re capable of inflicting.
Chip Daniels
If there is any good to be gleaned from this incident, it’s that the attack sounded an alarm for leaders everywhere to re-examine their security, prepare for threats, and raise the standards of the supply chain.
Three years on and it’s not just SolarWinds that has learned lessons from this incident. The global world of business and commerce, the IT industry, governments – in fact, everyone with a vested interest in the safety and security of their data and systems security – are implementing measures to address the weaknesses that these types of supply chain attacks uncovered.
Building security from the ground up
Protecting the supply chain starts with the entire IT industry ensuring that it builds secure software by default. By ensuring security is built in from the ground up, it will enable the entire industry to stay vigilant and safeguard our collective cyberinfrastructure.
A strong security foundation also requires having the right teams in place to monitor threat levels and ensure they have a cybersecurity incident playbook ready for any type of coordinated response. Why? Because the next attempted coordinated attack is just around the corner.
As an industry, we must ensure we address the ongoing cyber skills shortage so that we have enough skilled people to make our systems robust enough to keep them safe.
And yet, despite all the good work that is being done, the fact remains that it is almost impossible for any single company or organisation – working in isolation – to thwart persistent cyberattacks carried out by motivated and well-funded nation-state attackers.
That’s why it’s imperative that we come together – private and public sector – to strengthen our security efforts.
Securing cyber defences with public/private collaboration
We need to promote transparent and open information-sharing within the industry. One of the first things we advocated following SUNBURST was the prioritisation of transparent communication.
Not just with the industry and our customers, but as part of a wider collaboration with U.S. government agencies, so that we could understand what happened to help the entire industry be safer.
It’s an approach we believe should be replicated in every corner of the globe. Today, private companies and governments must form a two-way partnership and work together to negate cyberthreats.
Only by doing so can we ever hope that our digital world – used for trade, e-commerce, finance, healthcare, education, and so much more – can become a safer place to operate.
By collaborating and sharing our knowledge and experiences we can build a strong defence against well-organised and funded adversaries. This is imperative as modern threat actors have developed new tools and techniques with greater speed and sophistication than ever before.
Collaboration is key to ongoing security
This collaboration also extends to the way we train the people that keep us safe. As I mentioned earlier, we need to embrace education models to allow more cybersecurity professionals to enter the market, as the entire industry is experiencing a lack of qualified individuals to fill cybersecurity roles.
One way to do this is for software companies to increase incentives for young professionals and implement training among tech communities.
If SUNBURST taught us one thing it is this – the industry has learned that no one company, organisation, or government can stand alone against these threats. We’ve discovered that coordinated disclosure of incidents – and transparent, prompt information-sharing – helps protect us all. Over the last three years, I’m pleased to say that I’ve started to see the industry embrace a greater level of transparency and collaboration between public, private, and government organisations for our shared benefit. We just need more.
The corporate governance landscape is undergoing significant transformation as organisations face challenges in their ability to be agile and evolve to meet customer demands and expectations at a time when there is economic and political uncertainty. From resiliency, talent management, to emerging technological risks, organisations face many challenges that require proactive and adaptive compliance strategies. Drawing insights from current trends and issues, here are some predictions for the compliance landscape in 2024.
Resiliency in the face of uncertainty
In the ever-shifting economic and geopolitical landscape, organisational resilience will be a linchpin for success. Organisational culture, often the unsung hero or villain, will play a pivotal role. A culture that fosters adaptability and innovation will act as an enabler, empowering employees to navigate uncertainty and drive strategic goals. This culture will extend to embracing diverse working models, including hybrid arrangements, recognizing that flexibility is a critical component of resilience. Moreover, economic diversity within the workforce will be championed to mitigate risks associated with economic downturns. By diversifying talent and skills, organisations can better weather financial challenges and ensure sustainable growth.
Optimisation of processes efficiency
Efficiency in processes will be a cornerstone of compliance efforts in 2024. Internal audit functions will evolve into critical partners, ensuring adherence to compliance standards and actively contributing to organisational agility. Operating as a “critical friend,” internal auditors will engage in continuous improvement initiatives through the identification of root cause analysis and adherence with good practice using governance frameworks. This proactive approach will enhance overall processes, making organisations more resilient and agile to adapt to their environment.
Corporate disclosures and ESG compliance
Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) considerations will take centre stage in 2024. Compliance efforts will transcend mere legal obligations, encompassing comprehensive reporting that aligns with the organisation’s commitment to sustainability. Meeting investor expectations will be as crucial as meeting regulatory requirements, necessitating a transparent and holistic approach to corporate disclosures. The risks associated with inaccurate or incomplete disclosures will be carefully managed to build and maintain trust in the marketplace.
Cybersecurity and data security imperatives
As technology continues to advance, so does the sophistication of cyber threats. 2024 will see an increased emphasis on robust cybersecurity measures and data security. While technology poses a threat, it will also be a powerful tool in preventing cybercrime. Compliance strategies will focus on reactive measures and proactive approaches to stay ahead of potential threats. Data breaches can severely affect an organisation’s reputation and trustworthiness, making cybersecurity a paramount concern for compliance professionals.
Supply chain resilience and ESG integration
The vulnerabilities exposed by recent global events have underscored the importance of supply chain resilience. In 2024, organisations will extend their focus beyond traditional risk assessments to integrate Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors into their supply chain strategies. Contract assessments and reviews will become more comprehensive, ensuring suppliers align with sustainability goals. This integration of ESG considerations into supply chain practices will enhance resilience and position organisations as responsible global citizens.
Addressing sociopolitical and environmental issues
The geopolitical landscape is rife with challenges, from political crises and wars to inflation, energy crises, and interest rate rises. Compliance strategies in 2024 must incorporate a robust response to these external forces. Boards and compliance professionals will be tasked with navigating these challenges while maintaining organisational stability. Demonstrating sustainability will extend beyond environmental concerns to encompass broader sociopolitical issues, ensuring that organisations survive and thrive in the face of external pressures.
Adaptive governance in the face of emerging risks
Adapting to emerging risks will be a hallmark of highly resilient boards in 2024. Instead of reacting to each risk individually, boards will adopt an integrated approach to develop resilience in key areas. These areas include emerging risks, talent and culture, sociopolitical issues, environmental sustainability, and technology.
Emerging Risks: Boards will actively scan the horizon for potential risks, whether technological, regulatory, or geopolitical and position the organisation to navigate these challenges with agility.
Talent and Culture: Recognising that an organisation’s greatest asset is its people, boards will prioritise talent management and a resilient organisational culture. Strategies for attracting, retaining, and developing diverse talent will be paramount.
Sociopolitical Issues: Boards will be attuned to sociopolitical developments, understanding the impact of political and societal changes on the organisation. This awareness will inform decision-making and risk mitigation strategies.
Environmental Sustainability: With climate change at the forefront of global concerns, boards will integrate environmental sustainability into their governance structures. This includes not only compliance with regulations but proactive efforts to reduce the organisation’s environmental footprint.
Technology: The rapid pace of technological advancement brings both opportunities and risks. Boards will actively engage with technology as a tool for innovation while simultaneously addressing the associated risks, including cybersecurity threats and ethical considerations.
In the dynamic landscape of 2024, compliance will be a multifaceted challenge requiring organisations to be proactive, adaptable, and forward-thinking. Boards and compliance professionals need to address current risks and anticipate emerging challenges to steer their organisations toward sustainable success.
By embracing resiliency, optimising processes, and integrating ESG considerations, companies can build a robust compliance framework that stands the test of evolving times. The organisations that navigate this landscape with foresight and agility will not only meet compliance requirements but also thrive in the face of uncertainty over the year ahead.
The state of NHS infrastructure and legacy systems has started to attract attention from organisations worried about falling productivity. The Highland Marketing advisory board asked what it will take to fix the issues, against a backdrop of more funding being diverted from digital to “the frontline.”
The NHS is heading for a significant financial squeeze, with its already tight 2021 Budget settlement eroded by inflation and the bill for a year of strikes – which has come in at around £1 billion.
With an appeal for help falling on deaf ears at the Treasury, the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England diverted around £800 million to the frontline ahead of the Autumn Statement, including £350 million that had been earmarked for digital initiatives.
Old and inefficient
This kind of intervention is not unusual. Over the past decade, the NHS has been asked to manage with below-trend growth in its revenue budgets, on the assumption that it will be able to deliver significant efficiency savings. There has been little or no capital funding, and frequent raids on ‘ringfenced’ funds for headline-grabbing programmes.
The result is a £10.2 billion bill for backlog building maintenance: and what the National Audit Office described as “outdated and inefficient” IT infrastructure and “legacy” software. Which, the British Medical Association, think-tanks, and MPs have pointed out, is wildly inefficient.
“We have never invested enough in physical capital,” The Institute for Government argued recently, so “we are employing more and more doctors and nurses and then wasting their time while they try to free up a bed… or spend hours trying to book a diagnostic test… or wait for an agonisingly slow computer to wake up.”
Needed: a target operating model
These issues must be contributing to the NHS’ apparent lack of productivity, which is suddenly a hot topic for politicians and system leaders. “We have got 20% more people in the NHS than pre-Covid, but we haven’t got 20% more productivity,” industry expert David Hancock told a recent Highland Marketing advisory board discussion, “and the reason is a lack of capital funding.
“We have just had £350,000 taken out of IT. [Allowing for earlier raids, the cost of the frontline digitisation programme, and the cost of the federated data platform] that leaves us with about £200,000 [of the £2.6 billion earmarked for “innovative digital technology” in the 2021 Budget]: and that won’t buy much.”
Neil Perry, a consultant who until recently was CIO at an NHS trust, argued that the digital arm of NHS England should go back to basics and draw up a target operating model for infrastructure. “At the moment, there is money for electronic patient records, but every clinician wants to know how they are going to be deployed,” he said.
“Is it going to be on iPads, or computers on wheels, or PCs at the ward station? That’s because they’re worried there won’t be enough devices to go around. We should also have a basic limit on how old a piece of kit can get.
“We should have a stipulation that there is single sign-on where it’s needed, because nobody has an EPR that does everything. We need some leadership to say what good looks like on infrastructure, and a target operating model, so everybody can work towards it.”
And clarity on ‘who pays for what’
Andy Kinnear, another former NHS CIO, said there should also be clarity on who should fund it. “There was a piece of work started by NHSX called who pays for what,” he said.
“It tried to unpick the Treasury rules, the DHSC rules, the role of the integrated care systems, trust level spending and the role of auditors – all the things that make this such a difficult environment in which to deliver a significant level of infrastructure investment. We need something like that again, so we can move forward.”
NHS England’s recently appointed chief information officer, John Quinn, told this year’s Healthcare Efficiency through Technology conference that infrastructure is one of his priorities, not least because legacy systems are “expensive” and a “security risk.”
However, he didn’t sound like there’s a big plan in the offing. Instead, he urged trusts to increase their spending on IT to the level seen in other service industries; and to adopt new delivery models, such as cloud computing or software as a service.
Shifting trust perceptions
Andy Kinnear felt the first point needs to be addressed. “Trusts tend to think of technology as optional, or linked to innovation, rather than essential,” he said. “They would not see electricity as a nice thing to have, and they need to start thinking about technology in the same way.
“You can’t run a big, modern hospital without e-prescribing, or imaging. They’re infrastructure, like bricks and mortar, and they need to be kept up the same way.”
James Norman, a former NHS CIO who now works for Pure Storage, backed the second point, arguing that when trusts do invest in their infrastructure, they can default to replicating what they have, instead of replacing it with more sustainable computing.
However, he argued trusts will need guidance on how to make the shift – and to navigate complex spending rules. At the moment, he said some trusts “find themselves at odds” with their auditors if they try and capitalise cloud computing and SaaS, while “others capitalise loads of stuff and don’t get any push-back.”
At the same time, he added, all trusts suffer from the “digital hokey-cokey” in which the centre announces and re-announces funds, only to issue them so late that they have to scramble to spend the cash in a few weeks at the end of the financial year.
Rolling out legacy systems
It’s not just a lack of consistent policy, strategy or money that has left the NHS facing legacy challenges. NHS England is running a significant IT programme at the moment: frontline digitisation, which is spending £900 million to get some level of EPR into every trust in the country.
Yet, David Hancock pointed out, most EPRs being deployed now “are legacy systems”. More than one of the most popular EPR choices were first developed in the 1990s and are neither mobile-first nor cloud-native.
The big EPRs have persisted for reasons ranging from the need for their suppliers to get a return on the very significant cost of their development, to national maturity models that favour them, to “low risk” decision making by trusts, and a lack of clinical awareness of alternatives.
But they pose practical problems, of which the most discussed is their lack of interoperability, which impedes the drive for integrated, data driven care, and drives extra spending on workarounds like shared care records or the federated data platform.
Modern, UK-based alternatives are being developed, but for the moment they don’t offer all the functionality of a big EPR, and only a handful of trusts are willing to back them. So, while there are cloud-based, modular, and pay-as-you-go systems in the NHS, they tend to be found in well-defined and relatively small areas: running the back office; handling patient communications; rolling-out virtual care.
The big ask: a long-term, stable environment in which to plan
The UK must have a general election by the end of January 2025, and could have one as early as next spring. The Labour Party has started to use the state of NHS IT as a polling issue.
Responding to the Autumn Statement, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said: “It says a lot that after thirteen years of Tory government, there are still nearly 12,000 NHS computers running on outdated software that is vulnerable to cyber-attacks” and that ten-years after now-chancellor Jeremy Hunt “promised a paperless NHS by 2018” there are still “26 NHS trusts using 600 fax machines.”
Despite this, advisory board chair Jeremy Nettle summed up by saying the NHS doesn’t want more headline grabbing fixes – like shadow health secretary Wes Streeting’s Fit for the Future fund to “double” the number of diagnostic imaging devices in use.
“There’s a saying in business that IT infrastructure is like an iceberg,” he said. “You see the software you are deploying, but it’s going to account for only a third of the total cost of a project.
“Two-thirds of the total funding will need to go on managing the infrastructure that supports these digital interfaces. And to make that level of investment, you need predictability.
“Predictable strategy, predictable capital spending, because without that, nobody can plan, including the suppliers that we want to develop these systems, and bring innovation to the table.”
By Mark Gibbison, VP Strategic Sales Programs, Unit4
The stark economic challenges being faced by the UK public sector and local councils especially have been impossible to ignore recently. The sheer scale of the issue is becoming clearer over time with the Special Interest Group of Municipal Authorities (SIGOMA) indicating that a total of 26 local authorities (LAs) are at a near-term risk of issuing bankruptcy notices. These LAs are beset by debt (some accumulated in Covid days) and hampered by legacy infrastructure, and yet must support a population experiencing hardship driven by a cost-of-living crisis. The funding system appears to be broken regardless of a council’s location or political stripe, but what can be done to regain some sort of equilibrium?
This is a catastrophic environment that calls out for collective action, and for IT leaders to point directly to a greater use of shared services. Shared services are hardly new, and the approach has hovered in and out of fashion for decades, but their time has surely come. Quite plainly, authorities don’t have the necessary bandwidth, depth or breadth to act in isolation.
Pooling of services, resources and projects must be examined at every turn. By sharing core systems such as Finance and HR, authorities can gain not only economies of scale but also faster time to market, as well as access to best practices and replicated processes and workflows. Security, too, is improved through broader oversight, ESG goals become more attainable and hard-to-recruit (and retain) skills can be optimized and scaled. In turn, staff gain greater power and autonomy to address testing challenges that extend beyond local remits. Leaders also benefit from smarter procurement and streamlined contract and vendor management.
In the UK but also abroad, and notably in, for example, the Nordics and the Benelux countries, a culture of shared services is clearly becoming the way forward, alongside complementary models that support automation, rapid data insights and light-touch actions. That means cloud and self-service portals will often be the way forward for both staff and an increasingly digital-native, mobile-first populace.
But authorities will also need to be entrepreneurial as well as parsimonious. Raising revenues via everything from parking meters to street vendor licences and fishing permits will need to become a larger part of the revenue pot.
As Nick Mayes, principal analyst at PAC, writes in his foreword to the new executive report Reinventing the Case for Shared Services:
“Local government organizations in Northern Europe face an incredibly difficult balancing act. They are tasked with operating in as lean a way as possible in order to meet tightening expenditure constraints while, at the same time, delivering and enhancing vital services that meet the changing needs of the population. But it is not just a case of providing ‘more for less’. Citizens now expect services to be delivered at greater speed, through the channels that best suit their needs, while having greater transparency into quality levels.”
Mayes is surely correct. Together with tightly run, tax spend-efficient services, today’s citizens always want experiences that replicate their everyday lives as consumers. They want compelling front-ends, excellent discoverability and fast processes unencumbered by roadblocks, delays or clunky interfaces. Sharing successful proven approaches makes more sense than reinventing the wheel and, amid the gloom, the PAC report points to some bright spots where innovation and creativity have led to enlightened outcomes.
We may think of the Municipality of Norrköping in Sweden with its Safe Meetings programme to provide remote human contacts in social services and planning, for example. The City of Vaasa in Finland has seen notable improvements in security through shared services compared to what its internal team of three staff could muster. Closer to home in the north of England, Chorley and Ribble councils have brought together 200 staff to share finance, governance, legal and other services. Further south, Watford and St. Albans have extended a collaborative effort, adding planning enforcement, building control and legal services to existing IT, HR, revenues, benefits, procurement, and financial services partnership.
Some shared services are well established: Stafford Borough and Cannock Chase councils in the Midlands have saved about £1m per year since 2011 and continue to extend their efforts.
It’s hard to overstate the challenges that local authorities face. As ever, change will not be straightforward. Leaders must tread especially carefully on data sharing, be clear on goals, always cleave to citizen needs, and be ready to adapt when requirements or circumstances change. But desperate times call for desperate measures and nothing less than a wholesale embrace of a sharing culture will be enough to begin to address current challenges.
A recent operation by Greater Manchester Police has seen tonnes of seized counterfeit clothing being recycled to help homeless people and low-income families in Manchester.
Left to right: Tim Jensen from Lighthouse Security, Harry Dwan from the Mustard Tree and Inspector Dan Cullum from Op Vulcan
In the last 14 months the forces Operation Vulcan has seen the force raid counterfeit shops in the city, removing thousands of tonnes of counterfeit items from the streets and hitting the criminal’s pockets, who were once making millions of pounds of profits from this lucrative trade.
A top priority for Operation Vulcan was to minimise waste and make sure the counterfeit items police seized were put to better use. Working with a specialist company, almost 1,000 tonnes of counterfeit items have been repurposed or recycled; turning them into useful, safe products which the people of Greater Manchester and afar can benefit from.
For example, some of the hats, t shirts and gloves – which are made from safe materials – were debranded and given to charities and local community organisations.
Items that are unsuitable or unsafe are shredded to create totally new items such as bedding or blankets. Even the packaging and boxes that the items are sold in can be recycled into insulation for houses.
None of the counterfeit items that Operation Vulcan seize go to waste.
Last week, the team donated hundreds of items of clothes to a local charity called the Mustard Tree, which works to combat poverty, inequality, and homelessness in Manchester.
Inspector Dan Cullum, one of Operation Vulcan’s specialist officers, said: “The community and their needs are at the heart of Operation Vulcan and the fact that we have been able to repurpose and recycle everything and give it back to those in need really makes a difference.”
Harry Dwan from the Mustard Tree said: “This donation is gratefully received and will now be provided to those who need it most such as those sleeping on the streets, low-income families and those who are most vulnerable in the community. We can’t thank Tim and the Op Vulcan team enough.”
Radiology teams and other healthcare professionals throughout the NHS in Scotland are to benefit from a new agreement that will see a cloud-based enterprise imaging servicedelivered across 15 NHS boards by international medical imaging IT company Sectra.
The agreement with NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) will provide tools that will support healthcare teams as they review and report on around 5 million radiology examinations a year, working across NHS Scotland organisations.
The fully managed software as a service (SaaS), Sectra One Cloud, will be used by all of Scotland’s 14 territorial NHS boards and by NHS Golden Jubilee, which also hosts the Scottish National Radiology Reporting Service. NHS organisations will utilise the radiology, breast imaging, and orthopaedics modules available through the enterprise imaging service.
Sectra will engage with national and local teams across NHS Scotland to deliver the new agreement, which will replace a contract with Scotland’s current supplier that is due to end in 2026.
Implementation will involve the migration of more than 55 million radiology studies to a single instance of Sectra’s enterprise imaging service. Managed through Sectra One Cloud, the service will provide ongoing support and seamless upgrades for users, local business continuity within each NHS board, as well as enabling ease of scalability for NHS Scotland’s future requirements.
Mary Morgan, Chief Executive, NHS National Services Scotland, said: “Our new partnership with Sectra will provide Scotland’s NHS radiology teams with an enterprise imaging service that will support our professionals as they deliver efficient and effective diagnoses for patients. The service creates additional potential to support the direction set out in the new Scotland Radiology Model and opens up further possibilities around enhanced cross-site working.”
All of NHS Scotland’s acute radiology, orthopaedic and breast screening services will be covered by the new contract, which also creates the potential to extend support to additional diagnostic services in the future and allow the exploration of further technology, such as the use of Sectra’s platform to more easily procure and integrate AI applications into existing radiology workflows.
Radiologists and reporting radiographers will benefit from a single log-in profile, allowing them to work consistently with personal configurations from any location. Clinical teams will continue to benefit from seamless access to imaging for their patients from a single national source, regardless of which board has carried out imaging acquisition.
Additionally, enhanced collaboration across clinical specialties will be supported by having a single system. For example, information that can support surgery decisions and planning, will be easily accessed by both the specialist radiologists and orthopaedic teams.
The contract was signed in December 2023 for an initial 10 year term, with two optional extension periods.
Jane Rendall, UK and Ireland managing director for Sectra, said: “The potential for NHS Scotland from embracing a cloud-based enterprise imaging system is exciting. This will create new opportunities for innovation and for collaboration between Scotland’s NHS radiology teams. Scotland’s NHS boards are known around the world for delivering excellence in care, and I look forward to Sectra supporting their professionals in the years ahead.”
Almost 500 jobs and 90 new apprenticeships have been created within a year thanks to work delivered through social enterprise and procurement expert Fusion21.
Celebrating its 21st anniversary this year, Fusion21 ensures its members, ranging from social housing associations to education and health providers, include social value targets as part of their projects such as creating local jobs and apprenticeship opportunities, voluntary work and community-focused initiatives.
Data crunched by Fusion21 reveals hundreds more jobs and apprenticeships have been created and retained this last year – alongside a raft of work placement opportunities, training courses and tailored careers advice for young people.
Data for the financial year 2022-23 shows:
1,504 people benefited from employment opportunities – including sustaining and creating new jobs and apprenticeships, for both full and part-time roles.
496 jobs were created – more than double the 214 the previous year. Of the 496 jobs created, 442 were full-time and 54 were part-time.
857 jobs were sustained (people remained in a role) compared to 554 jobs the previous year.
90 apprenticeships, in areas as diverse as surveying to fire risk assessment, were created compared to 68 the previous year.
62 apprenticeships were sustained compared to 40 the previous year.
Other benefits include education, careers advice and training opportunities.
This included 1,082 people embracing training courses, 275 people able to do work experience placements and 1,416 people able to attend mentoring, career advice and employability advice presentations and sessions.
Sarah Maguire
Suppliers and members using Fusion21 procurement frameworks also used their social value delivery to benefit communities by volunteering and donating to local good causes. Their generosity included donating to food banks, installing ramps at a local school to improve disabled access, creating communal garden areas and donating security equipment to a homeless shelter.
To date, Fusion21 has delivered more than £165 million in social impact and created more than 11,150 employment outcomes.
Sarah Maguire, Head of Social Value at Fusion21 told GPSJ: “These figures show just how impactful social value can be with our members and suppliers on our frameworks creating and sustaining hundreds of jobs, apprenticeships and incredibly valuable training opportunities and careers advice.
“The figures exceed targets and reflect the commitment of our members and supply chain to collaborate to achieve impactful social value.
“As Fusion21 celebrates its 21st year I could not be prouder to help our members to deliver social value they can see through intelligent procurement and take an outcome-driven approach to integrate social value into projects so communities as a whole can benefit from their projects.”
Additional Voluntary Contribution (AVC) service provider, AVC Wise Ltd. (AVC Wise), has been awarded a place on the UK’s first and only Salary Sacrifice AVC Framework, and as the only approved supplier on the framework.
Portsmouth City Council has launched the new framework meaning other public sector organisations can seamlessly enter into a contract with a salary sacrifice AVC provider, without the need for a lengthy procurement process.
Councils can make savings and support staff’s financial wellbeing through salary sacrifice additional pension contributions more easily than ever.
This means that these organisations can provide further education and support around retirement planning and financial wellbeing to their workforce easier than ever before.
Shaun Tetley, Head of Pensions, Payroll and Reward at Portsmouth City Council told GPSJ: “We have been leading the way with additional voluntary contributions for some time, we firmly believe it’s a great move for staff and employers and we’re delighted to launch this framework that can help so many others benefit from it.
Numerous councils have said they’ve had difficulties procuring a supplier, and now they don’t need to worry about that as they can benefit from the work we’ve already done.
AVC Wise is the market leader for salary sacrifice AVCs and provides a fantastic service. Our framework will speed up staff getting benefits and employers saving money, which can only be good for the public sector”
“This framework is a game changer for public sector organisations.” explains Bobby Lyons, Head of Commercial and Strategy at AVC Wise. “It cuts out the lengthy tender process as all you need to do is identify your requirements, present these to us at AVC Wise, award a contract, and you’re on your way to offering your public sector employees the best retirement benefits possible. We’re constantly striving to make access to salary sacrifice AVCs as easy as possible for employees, and this is a huge step in the right direction in our mission to support the public sector and the financial wellbeing of their employees.”
Suppliers under this agreement are pre-qualified, which means that AVC Wise have met the appropriate mandatory and discretionary criteria as set out in the framework. For more information, please email info@avcwise.co.uk.
New V500 provides live-streaming of video and location for greater awareness, safety and efficiency on the frontline
Motorola Solutions (NYSE: MSI) has unveiled the LTE-enabled V500 body camera, the newest addition to the company’s mobile video portfolio that brings critical real-time field intelligence to emergency response. The V500 body camera enables first responders to stream live video and location to the control room, giving incident managers a better understanding of events and helping them to respond quickly and efficiently. After an incident has been resolved, the V500 also streamlines evidential workflows through LTE-based footage offload and simplifies administration via remote maintenance over mobile networks.
V500 body camera
“Frontline teams face high-stress situations where their attention needs to be entirely focused on the scene,” said Jeremiah Nelson, corporate vice president, Response, Reporting & Evidence at Motorola Solutions. “The V500 gives control room staff ‘eyes-on-scene’ so they have clarity on what’s unfolding, to not only dispatch the appropriate help but capture a record of critical events. And now, everyone from IT technicians to evidence handlers can also benefit from this advanced LTE connectivity, by gaining access to footage as soon as it has been recorded and managing cameras from anywhere.”
The new body camera offers high quality video and audio capture and is equipped with an optional pre- and post-recording capability, helping to ensure there is a record of every interaction from start to finish. Along with the rest of the Motorola Solutions mobile video portfolio, the V500 body camera uses the VideoManager evidence management software to enable the secure handling, storage and sharing of evidence, either on-premises or in the cloud. Additionally, the V500 integrates with Motorola Solutions’ ecosystem of technologies, from radio and in-car video systems to control room solutions, as well as Holster Aware Bluetooth sensors which can activate video recording and live-streaming if an officer draws a weapon.
The analyst firm Frost & Sullivan recently awarded Motorola Solutions with the 2023 Global Product Leadership Award in the global body camera market. Following a thorough assessment of the global market, the analyst firm recognised that Motorola Solutions’ body camera systems outperform competitive solutions.
“For law enforcement and security personnel today, body-worn cameras are an essential tool to capture evidence and ensure transparency, and we expect to see continued growth in their adoption,” said Elizabeth Whynott, Frost & Sullivan best practices research analyst. “Motorola Solutions’ cost effective body-worn cameras are easy to use and integrate seamlessly into existing public safety technology.”
Motorola Solutions continues to make significant investments in advancing a comprehensive portfolio of video security and digital evidence management products so organisations worldwide can leverage the most information to make the best possible decisions.
About Motorola Solutions Motorola Solutions is solving for safer. We build and connect technologies to help protect people, property and places. Our solutions enable the collaboration between public safety agencies and enterprises that’s critical for a proactive approach to safety and security. Learn more about how we’re solving for safer communities, safer schools, safer hospitals, safer businesses – safer everywhere – at www.motorolasolutions.com.
HID’s Comprehensive Smartcard Solution to Secure Access to Device Data for Drivers, Law Enforcement and More
Helsinki Cathedral
HID, a worldwide leader in trusted identity solutions, has been awarded a contract to provide Finland with a new high-security drivers’ license cards and personalization services solution, incorporating the European second-generation smart Tachograph solution. This collaboration reflects HID’s commitment to enhancing security and efficiency in Finland’s transportation systems.
Finland will benefit from a comprehensive, tailor-made, and configurable solution that integrates software, hardware, and equipment to align with the Traffic Authority’s vision of a streamlined and efficient digital document issuance system.
For the project, HID has joined forces with CardPlus Systems, a trusted partner that provides secure ID documents, services, and systems, to ensure an exceptional driver’s license solution with industry-leading features.
Max Fogdell, Head of Services for Driving Licenses and Examinations at Finland’s Transport and Communications Agency, Traficom, stated, “The Finnish Transport and Communications Agency, Traficom, is pleased to enter into a partnership with HID. We are convinced that with HID’s broad experience in the field of trusted identity solutions, we will be able to ensure that our card services continue to meet the highest level of security, efficiency, and compliance with the European Union’s safety regulations.”
Craig Sandness, Senior Vice President and Head of Citizen Identity & Secure Issuance expressed his enthusiasm for the project, stating, “We are proud to collaborate with the government of Finland and contribute to the enhancement of the country’s driver’s license and tachograph systems. Our commitment to security and innovation is unwavering, and this contract is a testament to our dedication to safeguarding citizens and infrastructure.”
With the European Union’s new safety standards and tachograph regulations, commercial vehicles in the region are required to install second-generation tachographs by 2026. HID’s advanced solution fully complies with these stringent regulations and includes smartcards securing access to device data for drivers, law enforcement, companies, and workshops.
For additional information about HID’s ID Document Issuance solutions, please visit the website.
North Herts Council (NHC) is set to revolutionise its operations and enhance service delivery with the adoption of TechnologyOne’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) suite.
The comprehensive solution encompasses financials, supply chain management, Enterprise Asset Management (EAM), and Corporate Performance Management (CPM), establishing North Herts Council as a pioneer in digital innovation within the realm of local government.
TechnologyOne Executive Vice President, Leo Hanna
As local government in the UK battles rising inflationary pressures, North Herts recognised the need for a modern and integrated ERP solution to replace its legacy applications. The council conducted a thorough evaluation and selected TechnologyOne for its proven track record in delivering transformative solutions to the public sector. The integrated SaaS solution will help the council gain efficiency, increase transparency, and provide exceptional services to its constituents.
The inclusion of financials, supply chain, EAM, and CPM modules in the ERP suite ensures that NHC has a unified platform to manage its financial processes, streamline supply chain operations, optimise asset management, and enhance corporate performance reporting. This holistic approach enables North Herts Council to break down silos, improve decision-making, and drive operational excellence.
North Herts Council’s Service Director – Resources, Ian Couper, said: “We are entering a new era of efficiency and transparency in our operations with the adoption of TechnologyOne’s SaaS ERP suite. This comprehensive solution aligns with our vision for a modern and integrated approach to managing our resources and services and will help us deliver an exemplary experience for our communities.”
TechnologyOne Executive Vice President, Leo Hanna, said: “Thirteen years of budget pressures, more cuts expected, and rising resident demand for services amid the cost-of-living crisis are putting significant pressure on councils. The SaaS ERP model is tailored to meet the unique needs of local government bodies, providing them with the tools to enhance efficiency, transparency, and overall service delivery while lowering their costs.
“North Herts decision to implement our full ERP suite showcases their commitment to embracing innovation for the benefit of their community and we are thrilled to partner with them on their journey toward digital excellence.”
TechnologyOne partners with unitary authorities and district councils across the United Kingdom, including Blackpool Council, Conwy County Borough Council and Derby City Council.
It’s just over a year since the UK Government launched its Digital Strategy in June 2022, with ministers heralding the policy as a “vision for harnessing digital transformation and building a more inclusive, competitive and innovative digital economy”.
Beneath the bold statement, the government’s policy document states the importance of Digital Foundations being laid as the bedrock of its strategy. This ranges from critical infrastructure, such as high-speed broadband, to future-facing technology, including Artificial Intelligence.
Yet how are government organisations themselves aligning with their own digital strategy?
Research commissioned by Epson with 150 IT decision makers in central and local government organisations show as many as 98% say they are now familiar with the policy. Despite this high awareness, however, only a third (33%) state their organisation has fully transitioned to digital processes.
Many departments are already moving away from paper-based operations, instead converting documents and data to the cloud. Progress is being made. But with two thirds of IT government still on their digitalisation journey, there remains much to do.
Positive about the opportunities ahead
Our snapshot of views among the government’s IT leaders — the beating heart of government service digitalisation — reveals a largely confident and positive outlook on the journey ahead:
Confidence is high: More than a quarter (27%) say the process of digitisation (converting physical formats to digital) is at a very advanced stage, and nearly all (99%) are certain they can fully digitise workflows.
Paperless productivity: Almost a third (31%) strongly believe relying on paper documents lowers workforce productivity, so it’s not surprising to find that 98% use digital documents at their organisation and say they can be quickly searched or accessed by the workforce.
Green dreams: 97% agree that digitising documents, rather than retaining paper-based processes, can help their organisation achieve its environmental impact goals — another key target for governments globally.
These are the demonstrable benefits of digitisation, but IT leaders say there are other factors to consider in transitioning to a fully digital estate.
Hybrid working brings security into focus
Chief among those is information sharing, particularly as increasing numbers of workers blend home and office working. And it’s a particularly pertinent issue within government as, according to the Office for National Statistics, civil servants and other public sector employees are today more likely to have hybrid working patterns (35%) than their private sector counterparts (26%).
To bring some control over data and information, four in 10 (42%) government IT decision makers have instigated additional protections around document sharing outside of government buildings. The concerns primarily lie with paper documents, with almost a third (31%) of those surveyed believing that sharing and storing paper files is not secure, compared to only 9% for cloud-based files.
Digitising processes is evidently a driver of confidence in the secure sharing and storage of documents and data, particularly as only 8% of IT decision makers think digitalisation presents more of a security risk than paper-based operations.
This presents clear opportunities for IT leaders across central and local government organisations to take advantage of new technologies that not only bring efficiency, but also peace of mind.
A focus on the future
Most IT decision makers agree that the benefits of using digital documents eclipse those of sticking with paper-based processes. And a majority (72%) believe it’s possible for their organisation to digitise 100% of their documents in the future.
There’s a clear opportunity to make great strides across local and central government — and it’s an opportunity that extends to any business on their digitalisation journey.
Paper won’t disappear from workplaces in the near future, but it’s becoming increasingly important to enable those documents to be scanned, uploaded, and digitally shared — securely.
Understanding how digital workflows are used in your organisation is a good start to understand how you can lay firm digital foundations.
A well-executed home renovation goes beyond cosmetic repairs and surface-level aesthetics by delving into the structural bones of a home. This approach not only revitalises the house’s appearance but also enhances its overall efficiency and maintenance. Meaningful digital transformation also requires such an approach.
However, a recent report from Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee examines the government’s past digital transformation efforts and suggests previous projects prioritised style over substance. “Improvements in government’s digital services over the last 25 years have focused on citizens’ online experience, without substantially the ageing legacy systems that sit beneath departmental and government websites,” the report states. “These have resulted in services which, although they might look good on the surface, are costly and problematic to run.”
Previous digital transformation efforts have contributed to the government’s complex current operational environment, which mixes legacy, hybrid, and cloud technology. This environment makes it difficult for IT administrators to monitor and manage distributed network, cloud, system, application, and database infrastructure. In such circumstances, it isn’t unusual for different teams, departments, and agencies to acquire their own monitoring tools, creating toolset creep, inefficiencies, and even shadow IT concerns.
In this environment, the government needs to streamline its IT operations and prioritize end-to-end visibility across the IT stack. One long-term solution is observability, which provides centralised insights, automated analytics, and actional intelligence across on-premises and multi-cloud environments.
Here are a few ways observability goes beyond traditional monitoring, and some of the capabilities that can help government IT leaders efficiently manage hybrid IT complexity:
Centralise visibility and reduce tool sprawl
Traditionally, government organisations adopted a diverse set of best-of-breed products to monitor and manage different parts of their technology stacks. However, over time this approach has led to tool sprawl and escalating costs. Disparate monitoring tools also often result in information silos, conflicting data, and alert fatigue—all of which make it more difficult to pinpoint and resolve IT issues or outages.
Observability provides end-to-end oversight of service delivery and component dependencies across on-premises, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments. Through a single pane of glass, teams can receive health scores and insights across networks, applications, databases, and systems. This fully integrated view enables IT teams to identify and diagnose service issues and determine root causes more efficiently.
Having a single source of truth for the entire IT environment also eliminates the need for other piecemeal monitoring and IT management tools, helping reduce tool sprawl and optimise IT spend.
Gain foresight with AIOps
Observability solutions can apply cross-domain correlation, machine learning, and artificial intelligence for IT operations (AIOps) to analyse data from across the entire IT environment, resulting in deep but digestible insights into network operations. With this intelligent view of an organization’s sprawling infrastructure, government IT administrators can reduce alert noise and accelerate issue remediation.
AIOps-powered observability also allows administrators to anticipate network issues, detect anomalies, and proactively address issues before they impact availability, the employee experience, and day-to-day operations. Machine learning technology also means the solution will continually learn and improve its intelligent alerting capabilities over time.
Modernise while maintaining support for legacy systems As the UK central government aims to accelerate more meaningful, end-to-end digital transformation and modern technology investments, the Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO) has published its digital roadmap to 2025, Transforming for a Digital Future. The plan appropriately prioritises decommissioning and migrating ‘high risk’ legacy systems. However, legacy IT systems deemed lower risk will likely remain in place for some time, meaning IT admins will still need to manage complex hybrid environments.
Teams should look for an observability solution that can seamlessly onboard new applications, services, and infrastructure while still providing comprehensive visibility into the legacy apps and systems many government agencies still rely on. With AIOps, observability can also help uncover dependencies between disparate systems, making it easier to identify changes affecting application and service delivery. By leveraging an observability solution that can be self-hosted or in the cloud, government agencies can select the deployment option that works best for them now and in the future.
The recent Public Accounts Committee report underscores how previously prioritising front-end modernization over legacy systems has contributed to the government’s complex operational environment. To address this complexity and prepare for more sweeping digital transformation efforts, IT teams should prioritise observability. With end-to-end visibility, IT teams can properly oversee their entire house of IT infrastructure, sunset piecemeal monitoring tools, and increase productivity with AIOps.
The Water Jetting Association’s senior medical advisor is concerned that water jetting injuries are going under-reported. The WJA’s General Manager, Leanne Smith, explains the response to his concern and latest initiatives to promote safety in the industry.
Dr Sancho Rodriguez-Villar is an intensive care consultant at Kings College Hospital, in London. He is also a world expert on fluid injection injuries. Those are injuries caused by any fluid – it could be hydraulic oil, petrol, chemicals, paints, or water – breaking through skin or another body membrane.
It is why, in 2016, the WJA commissioned Dr Rodriguez-Villar to lead a team to study injuries caused by water jetting and fluid injection injuries in particular. The topic was complex and the research thorough. Reason why it took three years to complete.
WJA General Manager Leanne Smith
The resulting research paper, Management of industrial high-pressure fluid injection injuries (IHPFII): the Water Jetting Association (WJA) experience with water driven injuries, was published in the European Journal of Trauma Medicine in 2019. It is also available on other medical research platforms.
Global interest
Since then, the paper has been downloaded more than 10,000 times, making it, almost certainly, the most important source of detailed and peer-reviewed information about water jetting injuries in the world.
It took Dr Rodriguez-Villar by surprise. He puts it down, in part, to water jetting applications becoming more common across an increasing number of industries, including commercial cleaning, water utilities, construction, manufacturing, energy generation, and even water sports.
He also concludes that the scale of global interest into the research indicates water jetting injuries and other fluid injection injuries are very likely to be under-reported.
In a video interview recorded by the WJA, available on the association’s website, he says: “So, definitely we can say [these injuries] are not as rare as we thought initially.
“We need to be very careful with that. I will say not as uncommon, but very likely not reported. Yet the injuries have potentially significant consequences for those who suffer them.”
Dr Rodriguez-Villar and the WJA are now working together to try to ensure people get the best medical advice about water jetting injuries and that research can continue into how best to treat them.
It means people with concerns can contact him via the WJA website and share information in confidence, in the manner of a doctor-patient relationship.
Injury algorithm
Water under just 100 psi (7bar) of pressure can piece skin and enter the body. Water jetting operatives can work at pressures of over 40,000 psi (2,600 bar).
Dr Rodriguez-Villar makes the point: “The speed of the water is over 2,600 kilometres per hour, well above the speed of sound . So it’s the speed of the bullet.”
This means the water can penetrate the skin with extreme force, taking a range of contaminants, including oils, chemicals, dust, organic matter, viruses and bacteria deep into the body.
Injury before and after
However, because the entry point is very small, medical professionals often do not appreciate the severity of the injury. Patients can be discharged without the appropriate treatment and then go on to experience severe complications. This can result in further life-changing injury or death.
It is for this reason that a key element of the research was the development of a water jetting injury treatment algorithm. This provides clear, up-to-date advice for the most effective treatment of injuries from first aid, through hospital care to discharge and beyond.
The algorithm has now been redesigned into an A4 format with clear, colour-coded pathways through every stage of treatment, so paramedics, physicians, nurses and therapists can quickly check best practice guidance.
Safety code
The WJA is also continuously improving other vital elements of its guidance to the water jetting industry, notably its codes of practice and its training programme (the water jetting treatment algorithm being key elements of both).
We have two codes of practice – the Blue Code, for the safe use of high and ultra-high pressure jetting equipment, and the Red Code, for water jetting in drains and sewers and surface preparation with a jetting gun up to a pressure of 275 bar that an operative can comfortably control.
Both codes have been thoroughly reviewed and updated during 2023, with guidance strengthened, a process supported by our key external stakeholders, notably the HSE.
For example, in many cases where we previously advised actions ‘should be’ taken, we now make clear they ‘shall be’ taken.
A new Purple Code, for pressure washing, is due to be published by the end of 2023.
Skills training
The WJA has also reviewed and updated its City & Guilds accredited training programme, which is informed directly by the guidance in or codes of practice.
The programme gives operates a theoretical and practical grounding in water jetting to underpin workplace learning and practice (there is a stand-alone pressure washing course).
Operatives must attend and pass a one-day class-based WJA Safety Awareness course and at least one practical module, selected from: Surface Preparation (SP), Hydrodemolition (HD), Tube and Pipe (TP), Drain and Sewer (DS), or Drain, Sewer and Surface Preparation (DSP).
They then receive their WJA Training Card, which is valid for three years. At this point, the card must be renewed by attending and passing a Safety Awareness Refresher course, which includes a practical assessment.
The DSP practical module is a new course that combines assessments of practical skills in drain cleaning and surface preparation using a hand-held jetting gun.
It aims to eliminate temptations to use hose nozzles to carry out asset washdowns, a common task for drainage contractors, and provide skills needed to expand services to include industrial cleaning.
Farmworker support
In another new initiative for 2023, we are offering free training places to farmers who often use water jetting to wash down equipment and production areas, such as milking parlours.
They can take places available in a free training programme designed to help WJA members who only need to place up to two operatives at a time on a course.
The support for farmers reflects the WJA’s desire to work in safety-critical sectors that use water jetting but, conventionally, do not appreciate the value of, and urgent need for, structured training.
Competency course
The WJA is also keen to encourage more companies to take up our new Level 2 Water Jetting Technician vocational qualification, which is accredited by ABBE, is our first competency qualification for water jetting.
WJA member RGL Services has been the first contractor to trial the course, which combines City & Guilds training courses with a programme of worksite assessment.
RGL Services Contracts Director and Contracts Supervisor Ian Chapman said: “This course is the necessary and natural next step for WJA training. It’s the way forward.
“It has been a very positive experience for us as a company and for our operatives. We’ve identified multiple benefits that support more effective operational performance and our reputation as a high performance business.”
JETTING SHOW FIRST The WJA has launched preparations for its first trade show, with strong interest already being shown in the event. It will bring together contractors, service users, technical experts and industry stakeholders to see and discuss what’s new in a fast-evolving and vital commercial sector. Organisations that want to take a stand or attend the event on Thursday 12th September, 2024, at the Stonex Stadium, home of the Saracens Rugby Club, North West London, should contact the WJA: events@waterjetting.org.uk.
Commenting on Scottish GDP estimates, which show the economy grew by 0.4% in the three months to September, Wellbeing Economy Secretary Neil Gray said:
“These figures show the robustness of the Scottish economy, despite the stiff headwinds faced by countries around the world. We don’t under-estimate the seriousness of a cost-of-living crisis which continues to hamper household and businesses’ ability to spend, to the detriment of the wider economy.
“We are doing all we can with the limited powers available to us, including supporting business exports to produce increased international sales. As part of the Autumn Statement, Scotland needed a fair deal on investment for businesses, infrastructure and public services – the UK Government has failed to deliver on every count.
“Scottish businesses also continue to suffer due to Brexit’s effect on supply chains, trade and the free movement of people. I am not content with minimal growth levels for Scotland as part of the UK.
“By focusing on developing equality, opportunity and community, an independent Scotland can build a fair, green and growing economy and match the performance of our European neighbours.”
Recently launched APN Group has acquired Trace Enforcement Group, the fastest growing provider of debt recovery and enforcement services to the private and public parking sectors. In support it has simultaneously announced the appointment of three more industry-leading figures to its senior ranks.
Colin Arthur, Paul Kyte and John Mason
APN Group has fully acquired Trace Enforcement Group – comprising Trace Enforcement Services, Trace Debt Recovery and Trace Managed Services – and appointed John Mason as its Managing Director. Formerly John served as a Director and Board Member of CDER Group, having previously worked asDirector of Traffic Enforcement and Congestion Charging for Transport for London and as Head of Off-Street Parking for City of Westminster Council.
Colin Arthur, previously Operations Director at Debt Recovery Plus, takes up the newly created role of Transformation Director, and Paul Kyte, a former Head of Parking at Worcester Council and consultant with RTA Associates, joins from Bristow and Sutor as Client Director.
The three founding directors of Trace Enforcement Group – Chloe Barnes, Louis Ellis and David Jarvis – remain shareholders, and have taken up active roles within the newly established APN Group.
News of this acquisition follows last week’s announcement that RingGo founder Harry Clarke has joined APN Group as Chair.
John Mason, Managing Director, Trace Enforcement Group: “After nearly 30 years in the parking enforcement and debt recovery sector I am delighted to have the opportunity to build upon the robust success that the TRACE Group has already achieved.”
Eddie Harrison, Chief Operating Officer of APN Group: “APN Group is bringing together real expertise in both private and public parking sectors with a genuine understanding of data, process and technology to create something new and meaningful. We’re delighted to bring Trace Enforcement Group into our newly established structure, and we can’t wait to share more news on our further growth and diversification as soon as we are able.”
New solution unifies real-time data to inform incident response and improve frontline and community safety
Leicestershire Fire & Rescue Service (FRS) has selected Motorola Solutions’ (NYSE: MSI) command centre technology, including Control Room Solution (CRS), to strengthen the service’s call handling and emergency dispatch. The solution will help to increase the speed, effectiveness and resilience of Leicestershire FRS’s incident response to support frontline and community safety. Ongoing software maintenance will help ensure the critical system remains current.
Serving a population of over one million people across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland, Leicestershire FRS manages around 15,000 calls and attends 8,000 emergency incidents on average per year. The service responds to a wide range of emergency situations, from fires, to road traffic collisions and search and rescue missions, whilst also providing community safety and fire prevention services.
“Our control room is integral to our emergency response capabilities. It is the first point of contact in any emergency situation and acts as the ‘eyes and ears’ for our teams,” said Callum Faint, chief fire and rescue officer, Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service. “Emergency call handlers operate in fast moving and uncertain environments. They need to be able to gather vital information from emergency calls and quickly relay the details to response teams to help ensure the safety of frontline personnel as they work to protect communities.”
Motorola Solutions’ CRS integrates the control room’s communications into a single intuitive system, accelerating response times and improving operational efficiency. The hosted solution enables the control room to build a clear picture of events from multiple data sources, including real-time data from devices in the field, and provides secure bulk storage for media assets. It supports collaboration and mutual aid between fire services during spate conditions, where a large number of calls are received simultaneously across multiple locations.
“We have developed a solution that enhances the tools available to the control room, whilst simplifying workflows,” said Fergus Mayne, U.K. and Ireland country manager, Motorola Solutions. “Our objective is always to enable control room operators to focus on the call at hand, allowing them to dispatch the appropriate resource as efficiently as possible.”
About Motorola Solutions Motorola Solutions is a global leader in public safety and enterprise security. Their solutions in land mobile radio communications, video security and the command center, bolstered by managed & support services, create an integrated technology ecosystem to help make communities safer and businesses stay productive and secure. Motorola Solutions, are ushering in a new era in public safety and security. Learn more at www.motorolasolutions.com
Autumn 2023 Cover story – by Barley Laing, UK Managing Director at Melissa
Barley Laing
The public sector has long been considered a soft target by fraudsters. This is backed up by data from the Cabinet Office which highlights that fraud and error in public spending are estimated to cost taxpayers up to £51.8 billion every year, which is greater than the UK’s annual defence budget.
The Bounce Back Loan Scheme is a case in point. Of the £47 billion worth of Bounce Back Loans, £17 billion is already expected to be lost with £4.9 billion of that figure attributed to fraud.
In the future, cybercrime is set to increase as the cost of living crisis continues and more public sector services head online.
The answer to prevent fraud is to know your citizens (KYC), to make certain they are who they say they are, and are legitimately entitled to the services offered. The processes put in place to deliver KYC have the added benefit of helping to deliver a single citizen view (SCV). This will enable the personalisation of communications, improvement to the delivery of services and overall user experience, and greater operational efficiency – all vital during a period of high inflation and reduced budgets.
How to effectively deliver KYC
The best place to start is to access verified user contact data. This means have processes in place to cleanse and standardise user data held in batch, as well as the moment new data is collected.
The ideal approach to confirm proof of address is to undertake address validation. Matching a name to an address is vital to the data hygiene process. Doing so highlights inaccurate addresses, whether because of a typo or a malformed address, which can be easily corrected. Also, it flags instances in which someone has provided an address that they are not associated with, potentially for fraudulent purposes.
KYC match rates will be significantly improvedby first correcting input contact data. Also, undertaking data quality activity prior to running KYC checks is financially beneficial and more efficient.
Data decays rapidly
Contact data decays quickly for a number of reasons, for example people moving home, death and divorce, and is the main reason why user contact data lacking regular intervention degrades at 25 per cent a year. Also, 20 per cent of addresses entered online contain errors; these include spelling mistakes, wrong house numbers, and incorrect postcodes, which are primarily caused by people mistyping their details into small keyboards on their mobile devices. It’s a key reason why 91 per cent of organisations have common data quality problems.
The good news is that incorrect contact data can be avoided by having verification processes in place at the point of data capture. This usually involves simple and cost-effective changes to the data quality process that also help to deliver KYC and a SCV.
Prevent errors with autocomplete
Authentication by facial recognition concept. Biometric. Security system.
One of the most valuable pieces of technology to deliver clean data, ID verification and KYC, is an address autocomplete or lookup service. It delivers accurate address data in real-time at the onboarding stage by providing a properly formatted, correct address when the user starts to input theirs. It also enables convenience by reducing the number of keystrokes required, by up to 81 per cent, when typing an address. This speeds up the onboarding process and reduces the probability of the user not completing an application to access a service.
First point of contact verification can be extended to email and phone, so that these important contact data channels can also be verified in real-time. This ensures those in the public sector communicate effectively with users, not just on the first occasion, but on an ongoing basis.
Match and dedupe
With the average database containing 8-10 per cent duplicate records data deduplication is important. Duplication occurs for a variety of reasons, such as when two departments merge their data and mistakes in contact data collection occur at different touchpoints. Not only does duplication add cost in terms of time and money, particularly with printed communications, but it can adversely impact on the sender’s reputation.
Preventing such waste necessitates the use of an advanced fuzzy matching tool to deduplicate data. By merging and purging the most challenging records it’s possible to create a ‘single user record’ and obtain an optimum SCV. Organising contact data this way will also maximise efficiency and reduce costs, because multiple outreach efforts will not be made to the same person. Also, the potential for fraud is reduced by establishing a unified record for each citizen.
Data suppression / cleaning
Data suppression, or cleaning, using the appropriate technology that highlights people who have moved or are no longer at the address on file, is a vital part of the KYC process. As well as removing incorrect addresses, these services can include deceased flagging to prevent the sending of mail and other communications to those who have passed away, which can cause distress to their friends and relatives. The answer is to implement suppression strategies that help public bodies to save money, protect their reputations, and avoid fraud.
SaaS drives data quality
Today, it’s never been easier or more cost-effective to manage data quality in real-time. It’s possible to source a scalable data cleaning software as a service (SaaS) platform that requires no coding, integration, or training. Simply switch on and benefit instantly – which is something we offer via our Unison platform. This technology cleanses and corrects names, addresses, email addresses, and telephone numbers worldwide. It matches records in real-time, ensuring no duplication, and provides data profiling to help source issues for further action. A single, intuitive interface provides the opportunity for data standardisation, validation, and enrichment, resulting in high-quality contact information across multiple databases.
SaaS electronic ID verification (eIDV)
Data hygiene practices on their own aren’t enough to deliver KYC and prevent fraud. Forward-thinking public sector organisations are already using identity verification services, such as SaaS electronic ID verification (eIDV). SaaS eIDV platforms are leading the way because they are easy to deploy, automated, scalable and support cross-checks against an individual’s contact data in real-time as they complete an application online, thereby ensuring the user experience isn’t negatively impacted.
The public sector must embrace automated eIDV in lieu of the manual ID checks that many still have in place, despite being more expensive, time-consuming, and subject to human error.
To work effectively, and for best practice, the eIDV service must have access to a worldwide dataset of billions of consumer records, including reputable third-party, sanctions, and politically exposed person (PEP) data, and offer adverse media checks to provide a full ID verification service. This data must come from reputable global streams, including government agencies, credit agencies, and utility records. Ideally, the service should, at the same time, enrich the data of those held on databases, highlighting and correcting any existing inaccuracies. Such an approach maintains effective governance by facilitating compliance with KYC and anti-money laundering (AML) regulations.
KYC in tandem with KYB
Along with KYC it’s important that the eIDV platform is able to deliver know your business (KYB) checks, to enable organisations to fully understand the risks posed by new and existing business customers and suppliers. Fraud is frequently committed by those using shell companies or umbrella structures that just don’t exist in reality, so undertaking KYB to validate an organisation can greatly diminish that type of fraud from occurring. Also, delivering KYB will help to prevent financial crime, such as money laundering and terror financing, which could result in significant reputational damage, quite apart from the monetary cost of the relationship. KYC and KYB is something we offer via our full service eIDV offering, available as SaaS or cloud API.
In summary
While undertaking KYC might not be a legal requirement for the public sector, delivering practices that support its provision, along with KYB, is vital. This involves sourcing and using relevant technology to safeguard contact data quality and ID verification.
Once those in the public sector put in place procedures to deliver KYC, they will not only have the ability to prevent fraud, but have access to insight that will deliver a better experience for users, as well as improve efficiencies at a very challenging time for their budgets.
For more information about Melissa and how our data quality and identity verification services can help you, please visit: www.melissa.com/uk, email: barley.laing@melissa.com or call: 020 7718 0070.
The British Embassy in Washington DC recently hosted a Thought Leadership event and reception and invited a select number of British companies to showcase artificial intelligence (AI) and zero trust architecture (ZTA) solutions.
Left to right: David Trossell, CEO and CTO of Bridgeworks and Jamie Eykyn, Chairman of Bridgeworks, outside the British Embassy in Washington DC
The welcoming speech was delivered by Jamie Eykyn, Chairman of Bridgeworks, a British-based technology firm. This was the second time Eykyn gave a presentation at a British Embassy. The first time was in Paris, France, 50 years ago. He presented a new electronic ticket machine, which was designed for operation on trams and buses. He also founded Shuttle Technology Ltd that was sold SCM Microsystems in 1999. Following the sale, he concentrated on building a portfolio of transformational technology companies. It included award-winning company, Bridgeworks.
In his speech in Washington, he said: “The world of technology has advanced immeasurably in the 50 years since I was involved developing digital ticketing systems. From point solutions to specific problems, to integrated management systems. Nowadays, there’s also the deployment of advanced AI and cloud-based high-speed communications and compute, and the ability to co-ordinate a multitude of activities from a bewildering number of data collection points in virtual real-time across, for example, a battlefield.”
His company of the time, the electronic ticketing machine firm, was the first to use a microprocessor and solid state memory in the machines. While it may sound old hat today. However, in the 1970s they were cutting-edge.
His record of innovation shows why he backs Bridgeworks – personally and as Chairman. Bridgeworks’ products use WAN Acceleration, and like his ticketing machine in the 1970s, it is both innovative and unique at a point when most of the focus is on SD-WANs and WAN Optimisation.
Exclusive embassy invitation
Bridgeworks, based in Lymington, Hampshire, UK, was invited last month to present their award-winning A.I. technologies to U.S. government and industry leaders to highlight the best in British technology.
A key aim was to spotlight the support of the U.K. Government’s Department of Defence and Security Exports, (Department for International Trade), and share insights as an Export Champion.
British Ambassador to the United States, Dame Karen Pierce was present to facilitate valuable engagement with the U.S. Federal agencies and U.K. technology partners.
David Trossell, CEO and CTO of Bridgeworks, explains: “We invited our customers, OEM Partners, such as Dell Technology and IBM, Spectra Logic and our North American Resellers and System Integrators to share their successes implementing our systems.”
Trossell explains: “We were able to present solutions and deliverables and translate those to future business benefits for end users. “
Eykyn commends Trossell: “I am not a technical man, but I have always been interested in new technology. With Bridgeworks our WAN and data acceleration products, our CEO and CTO David Trossell, brought all his extensive skills in the storage world to bear, strongly supported by the IBM R&D Storage Establishment at Hursley, who confirmed the need for the AI and machine learning based products David developed and which we now know as PortRockIT and WANRockIT.”
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