"The Police Digital Service (PDS) has dismissed concerns about the quality and pace of its work being hampered by a cost-cutting push to reduce headcount in its flexible IT workforce, while acknowledging its efforts to improve workplace culture remain ongoing. The Home Office-funded company is responsible for overseeing the development and delivery of the National Police Digital Strategy. Projects in its purview include the setting up of the Microsoft Azure-based National Police Capabilities Environment (NPCE),"
"According to sources in PDS, the organisation is pursuing an "aggressive thinning out" of its IT contractor workforce, which has seen the number flexible workers it relies on cut by around 70%. The sources claim there were previously around 100 or so contractors working for the organisation in this capacity, but - as confirmed to Computer Weekly by PDS - the number of contractors on its books now stands at 30."
"'This is already badly affecting project deliveries - and that's only going to get worse, not better,' said one source, as another contracting source said PDS is heavily reliant on flexible workers for technical and specialist work. 'The bulk of technology and security specialism is provided to organisations such as PDS - not by the organisations themselves, because the simple truth is they don't have the money to attract and retain talent [with such specialised skills] in a competitive marketplace.'"
PDS has reduced its flexible IT contractor workforce from around 100 to 30, a roughly 70% decrease. The organisation oversees the National Police Digital Strategy and established the Microsoft Azure-based National Police Capabilities Environment (NPCE) in August 2025 amid ongoing sovereignty concerns about policing data processing in Microsoft's cloud. The contractor reduction affects technical and specialist capacity that external flexible workers previously supplied, reducing scalability for program phases such as discovery and delivery. PDS has dismissed claims that quality and pace are being harmed and acknowledges that work to improve workplace culture remains ongoing.
#police-digital-service #contractor-reduction #npce-microsoft-azure #workplace-culture #data-sovereignty
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