We asked the Department how the transition from Airwave to ESN would be funded. It said it would work with users to make transition affordable, but the only way to do this was through usual ‘fiscal events’.37 Although it said it would try and minimise the financial impact, it acknowledged there would inevitably be some financial impact on police forces, fire services and ambulance services.38 While the Department was confident that HM Treasury would provide the necessary funding at the next s...

We asked the Department how the transition from Airwave to ESN would be funded. It said it would work with users to make transition affordable, but the only way to do this was through usual ‘fiscal events’.37 Although it said it would try and minimise the financial impact, it acknowledged there would inevitably be some financial impact on police forces, fire services and ambulance services.38 While the Department was confident that HM Treasury would provide the necessary funding at the next spending review it could not rule out having to make cuts elsewhere to pay for ESN.39 The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) told us that financial pr Type: conclusion | Number: 13 | Response status: not_addressed Government response: 2.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: end December 2023 2.2 If the CMA decision is upheld following appeal, and the charge control comes into effect, there will be scope to reduce local costs for users of the A