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Interoperability in Justice and Public Safety Forum: Event write-up

12 November 20264 min read
Guest Insights
Police officer monitoring multiple screens displaying maps in a law enforcement control room

On 9 November 2026, techUK hosted the final session of the current tenure of the Interoperability in Justice and Public Safety Forum.

Simon Hall, the forum chair, looked back on his two years in the role. He highlighted the forum’s work with the Police Digital Service (PDS) on the newly published Interoperability Handbook, as well as its engagement with NDIES, the Home Office, Ministry of Justice and police forces.

The session explained to the audience the forum's four workstreams, based on the handbook's layers of interoperability: Connect it, Understand it, Prove it and Buy it.

1. Connect it: common connection and access rules

Basic standards on connectivity, APIs and message formats, along with blueprints and reference architectures, are already available to suppliers through the Knowledge Hub. There is strong demand for agentic AI, which will need extra rules such as delegated authority. This is an area for joint work with techUK’s Police AI activity.

Attendees felt the main gap is adoption, not standards. The Knowledge Hub is hard to use, and suppliers without a police member struggle to get access.

2. Understand it: shared meaning of data

There are plans for a law enforcement and justice domain within the cross-government Information Exchange Standard (IES), starting with mapping police data from systems such as Records Management Systems (RMS). The focus should be on the data the business actually needs, rather than trying to share everything.

Attendees agreed that ownership of shared definitions is vital, including being able to show in court what data meant at the time. Views differed on who should lead. Some favoured a multi-party, open approach involving industry, academia, government and policing, while others felt a policing body such as the National Digital and Analytics Office (NDAO) should take the lead. Members asked for clear routes to join the IES domain work.

3. Prove it: assurance, testing and readiness

The Third Party Assurance for Policing (TPAP) process checks suppliers’ security and processes. Key points from the discussion:

  • Testing between systems is often missed. Common test harnesses, potentially run by PDS, could let suppliers prove interoperability on demand.

  • Forces need a baseline. A standard maturity view would show each force’s gaps and the support it needs.

  • Capability must grow, for example through accredited suppliers alongside force self-help tools.

  • Assurance schemes overlap. Attendees suggested the Home Office and Ministry of Justice (MoJ) align their schemes or accept each other’s results.

4. Buy it: procurement and an open supplier marketplace

There was a call to move from talking to doing. Proposals included making interoperability a mandatory part of procurement now, as with social value, with questions linked to the PDS layers. Other suggestions were a tiered model like Cyber Essentials to keep things fair for SMEs, more use of the Procurement Act’s flexibility, and reuse of work already paid for by other forces.

Closing discussion: what to carry forward

Attendees agreed the four workstreams make sense, and that buyers are the biggest lever for change: suppliers meet the requirements put in front of them. Many felt mandation will be needed, backed by clear standards for buyers to point to. Other points were the need for consistent buying, attention to existing systems as well as new contracts, a clear owner for each workstream, and joining up with similar work across criminal justice and MoJ.

Simon closed by noting that the main barrier is now culture rather than technology, and that it is time to move from talking to delivery.

Next steps

Simon will combine the session's outputs with the forum's past two years of work into a handover document with recommendations. He suggested the next forum takes each workstream forward with a lead stakeholder, such as NDAO, PDS or Blue Light Commercial.

We will publish details on electing the new Chair and Vice Chair for 2027–2028 on the techUK website in the coming weeks. Elections will run over Christmas, with the new tenure starting in mid to late January 2027. To find out more or get involved, contact jesteam@techuk.org

On behalf of our Justice and Emergency Services team, a big thank you to Simon Hall and Robert Leach for chairing the forum this tenure. Since October 2024, the forum has moved from a closed working group to an open forum. It has grown in size, with new members joining, and in engagement with stakeholders. This is a clear sign of the great work Simon and Robert have done, and of how proactive and passionate they have been.