This is a Government-wide initiative that will see all UK public sector organisations which use a secure government connection migrate to the new secure network (PSN).
As part of this initiative, the Home Office has mandated an upgrade to the secure CJX communications network. All organisations in the criminal justice system, including policing, use the network for electronic communication (emails etc).
The Public Service Network in Policing (PSNP) provides improved security and accreditation to Home Office standards.
Without this scheme, Cleveland Police and Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner will not be allowed to operate on the police secure network. This would mean that it could not communicate electronically with other forces.
The Police and Crime Commissioner has previously approved a capital budget of £603k. The scheme is now in progress.
At the end of March, £90k had been spent with remaining expenditure mainly incurred in April.
The revised standards for policing are exacting and have resulted in this large, complex and expensive technical infrastructure scheme.
As the scheme has progressed, further guidance has been issued by the Home Office. It strongly encourages forces to buy a managed firewall service at a cost of £42.2k.
The Force Information Security Officer supports this recommendation. He has advised adopting a managed firewall solution to provide both the Force and National Accreditor that data security criteria are being complied with.