In the eternal drama of the Emergency Services Network (ESN), IBM has now stepped in as the latest saviour – or sacrificial lamb, depending on your perspective.

While IBM’s £1.4 billion contract might sound impressive, the real challenge isn’t technical; it’s cutting through the Home Office’s Gordian Knot of bureaucratic ineptitude.

This debacle goes back to 2015, when the ESN program was set up to deliver a new digital network using 4G technology to improve communications for the police, fire and ambulance services, replacing the current Airwave network by 2019.

It’s now six years late…and counting.

The IBM contract is for an initial term of seven years, running until December 2031, with two optional extensions of twelve months each. With ESN’s track record, it would be reasonable to expect the two “optional” periods to be triggered – making December 2033 the most likely completion date.

An eye-watering fourteen years overdue – an astonishing failure of planning and execution!

2032 Retirement Club: Leadership’s Endgame

By the time the ESN limps towards its inevitable 2033 revision – most of the current Home Office management team will be sipping piña coladas on their taxpayer-funded pensions.

Make no mistake: this isn’t leadership with any skin in the game; it’s a retirement plan disguised as public service.

Why solve the problem today when you can defer accountability for another eight years? After all, the only deadline that seems to matter to the ESN leadership team is the one on their pension application.

Scrutiny? What scrutiny…

Over the years, there have been multiple investigations and reports from The Public Accounts Committee (PAC), The National Audit Office (NAO) and the Government’s Independent Projects Authority on ESN.

All of these bodies have expressed no confidence in the ESN plan.

The PAC’s frustration was evident in its latest report from July 2023 – the fourth since ESN was set up in 2015. Dame Meg Hillier, PAC chair at the time, didn’t mince her words:

“There has never been a realistic plan for ESN and no evidence that it will work as well as the current system. Assertions from the Home Office that it will simply ‘crack on’ with the project are disconnected from the reality, and emergency services cannot be left to pick up the tab for continued delays. With £2 billion ($2.44 billion) already spent on ESN and little to show for it, the Home Office must not simply throw good money after bad,”

In its latest report published in January 2025, The National Audit Office (NAO) investigated five major digital transformation projects running late and overspent. ESN topped the list as the worst by far. Currently 7 years behind schedule with an eye-watering overspend of £1.8 bn.

It cited key recurring issues that have not been addressed:

·       An unrealistic timetable

·       Lack of digital skills

·       Intercepting legacy technology

·       A lack of integration across the program

·       Failure to be “world-leading”

·       Ineffective resets to get the program back on track

·       Poor contract structure with suppliers and customers

The NAO concludes:

“Government (In ESN’s case, the Home Office) does not have sufficient skills and capability to manage the diverse breadth and depth of digital commercial needs, and this is particularly evident in the poor outcomes of major digital change programmes”

The Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) in its latest Annual Report (Published March 2024) states that the ESN program is officially rated as “red” for the second year running by HM Government. This means the IPA believes ESN is “unachievable” with problems that “do not appear to be manageable or resolvable” in their current form.

Yet, despite their best efforts to flag the issues, all the bodies responsible for protecting the public purse are toothless- lacking any power and authority to hold individuals to account and enforce any solutions.

The same ineffective Home Office officials keep repeating tired excuses no one believes. It’s just propaganda to avoid criticism and protect their comfort.

You have to wonder what it would take for anyone working in the Home Office to get fired.

IBM’s Role: Mission Impossible

IBM might genuinely bring expertise and resources to the ESN table, but let’s be realistic: they’ll be navigating the same bureaucratic minefield that has sunk every other effort. Here’s how it plays out:

Endless Committees

Before IBM can move a single server, they’ll be dragged into an endless loop of “stakeholder alignment workshops,” “impact evaluation meetings,” and “strategy recalibration sessions.” Translation: death by PowerPoint.

Optimism Bias Olympics

Any realistic plans from IBM will collide head-on with the Home Office’s sacred tradition of optimism bias, where every missed deadline is just an “opportunity for growth” and every ballooning budget is “a necessary investment.”

Decision Paralysis

The Home Office operates on a strict “no decision before it’s too late” policy, ensuring that IBM will spend more time waiting for approvals than actually integrating systems.

The Home Office: Champions of Bureaucracy

The Home Office doesn’t just create bureaucracy – it perfects it. For every practical suggestion IBM brings, expect a tidal wave of new forms, redundant approvals, and oversight committees tasked with “evaluating the evaluation process.”

By the time ESN goes live (if ever), the Home Office will have rewritten its entire handbook on how to waste time.

Retirement Bonuses for Failure

By 2032, as IBM fights to keep the ESN from collapsing under the weight of its own ambition, the current leadership will be enjoying retirement, blissfully unbothered by the consequences of their tenure.

Perhaps they’ll also receive congratulatory letters thanking them for their “valuable contributions” to one of the most expensive disasters in UK government history.

What Will the Emergency Services Get?

The police, fire, and ambulance services – the intended beneficiaries of this fiasco – will likely remain stuck with outdated Airwave systems for years to come.

IBM might deliver miracles, but even they can’t save emergency services from a program that has been grossly mismanaged from day one.

What Needs to Happen? (But Won’t)

To salvage what’s left of the ESN, radical change is needed:

Mandatory Early Retirement for Current Leadership

Let’s give the Home Office a head start on clearing out its leadership team. Why wait until 2032 when they can leave now?

Cut the Bureaucracy

IBM’s job is tough enough without the Home Office burying them in endless red tape. If the government wants results, they need to get out of the way.

Phase the Rollout (For Real This Time)

Deliver core functionalities first, like “push-to-talk,” instead of chasing some utopian all-in-one system that won’t arrive before flying cars become standard issue.

The Verdict: Comedy or Tragedy?

At this point, the ESN is less a program and more a tragicomedy. It’s a cautionary tale of what happens when bureaucracy trumps accountability, when optimism blinds leadership, and when taxpayers are left footing the bill for gross incompetence.

IBM might bring competence to the table, but even they can’t solve the biggest problem: the Home Office itself.

Until someone takes a flame-thrower to the bureaucracy and introduces real accountability, ESN will remain exactly what it is – a monument to government mismanagement, endlessly delayed and endlessly disappointing.

And when it’s all said and done, the only people truly benefiting will be the retirees raising a glass to yet another taxpayer-funded holiday!

Will Anything Change?

Let’s not hold our breath.

As long as the Home Office continues to tolerate mediocrity, taxpayers will keep footing the bill for a program that’s just like a never-ending farce.

Meanwhile, the emergency services – the very people this program is supposed to serve – are left waiting for a system they desperately need – but will never arrive.

If nothing else, the ESN saga is a Masterclass in how to waste public money, erode public trust, and deliver absolutely nothing on time.

As long as the same leadership remains in place, it will remain a never-ending Masterclass in failure, wasting time, money, and trust – with no end in sight.

About the author

David Hilliard is founder of Mentor, specialists in strategic program execution.

You can call him on 0118 359 2444 or email david.hilliard@mentoreurope.com.