Emergency radios cause for concern, says terror attack report

Digital radios for police were never expected to work inside buildings or in Underground tunnels, said the London Assembly's 7 July review committee in its second report.

Harsh lessons learned after the 2005 London bombings have lead to improvements in emergency plans, but communications are still delayed and lack proper coverage, the report found. The rollout of Airwave's digital radio system to London's Ambulance Service, Fire Brigade and the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) has faced delays and coverage problems - they don't work on the Underground train network or in buildings.

"Our report highlights continuing problems with Airwave that need to be tackled to ensure emergency service personnel have access to the robust and effective communications systems they need," said committee chairman Richard Barnes AM "Anything less would sell them and the Londoners they serve short."

Airwave's technology is set to be rolled out to fire services by November 2008 while implementation for the ambulance service begins next month and will complete in 2008. The Metropolitan Police have the system across most London boroughs now, with the last five set to be in place by next month - well past the March 2006 deadline.

The national contract - set up by the Police Information Technology Organisation (Pito), which has since been superseded by the National Policing Improvement Agency - originally only provided for open-air coverage, with any in-building coverage considered "incidental" in the contract.

Despite coverage limitations inside buildings being evident during pilots in 2000, the contract was still awarded to Airwave. "We were surprised to learn that the national contract for Airwave for police forces only extended to open air coverage, given that a significant proportion of police activities take place within vehicles and buildings," the report said, adding that the limitations in coverage could have a negative impact on police operations.

The Met has since asked contractors to fix coverage limitations where possible, often at extra charge - providing such coverage at Heathrow Airport cost £2.4 million.

And the assembly said it was "surprised" that coverage on the Underground was not part of the original plan. "We were also surprised to learn that coverage on the London Underground was not included in the original national plans and business case for Airwave radios, and that the issue was only considered well into the process of implementing Airwave within the Metropolitan Police Service," said the report. Airwave has since been contracted to link its coverage to Transport for London's Underground digital network, at a cost of £115 million.

The report said the Met police found other issues with Airwave radios, including software problems, backlighting issues, short battery life and training difficulties. The Airwave network also has capacity issues, meaning large events such as the Notting Hill Carnival require the police to get additional capacity at more cost.

The report did note that of the 54 recommendations it made last year, 40 have been accepted. "Londoners can be reassured that despite the heroic efforts made by the emergency services on 7 July 2005 no one is being complacent about their ability to respond to such a horrific incident," Barnes said. "We particularly welcome the fact that issues raised with the committee by survivors of the bombings are being addressed for the future."

The assembly committee will follow-up on this report in November 2007, it said.

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