Event write-up: Interoperability in justice and public safety forum (February 2026)
Our first meeting of 2026 of the Interoperability in Justice and Public Safety Forum brought together industry partners and Police Digital Service (PDS) to discuss progress on their Interoperability Handbook and Maturity Assessment, cultural and technical barriers, and opportunities to enhance data and system interoperability across UK justice and public safety organisations.
Discussions centred on the maturity assessment pilot, emerging standards, business process alignment, and strengthening cross-sector engagement.
PDS Interoperability Handbook and Maturity Assessment Update
Milan Bollegala, Technical Business Analyst at PDS, confirmed that the Interoperability Handbook has now been finalised following feedback from techUK members and is awaiting internal sign‑off before release. The handbook defines four levels of interoperability:
Organisational
Semantic
Structural
Foundational
These levels aim to help police forces measure and benchmark progress. A maturity assessment tool is under development, initially focusing on Records Management Systems (RMS). Forces including Humberside Police have volunteered for pilot testing. Strategic alignment continues with the Home Office and national bodies to ensure coherence across programmes.
Key Themes from the discussion
Culture as a major barrier
Simon shared survey results following techUK’s For what comes next – shaping the future of justice and emergency services event, which revealed that culture is the leading barrier to interoperability (60%), outweighing challenges related to technology, funding, and procurement. Group members discussed the need for structured business change strategies, stronger change management capability and leadership‑level engagement.
Some of the examples shared such as the NHS and Police Scotland highlighted the importance of user engagement, agile approaches, and clarity of mission in overcoming cultural resistance.
Technical architecture and standards
Milan explained that the Home Office continues to lead work on technical architecture, with PDS focusing on neighbourhood policing. Some of the key enablers discussed included open standards, APIs, and orchestration technologies.
The group discussed the need for common data libraries and ontologies as a foundation for semantic interoperability and future‑proofing IT systems across forces.
Business process and orchestration
The group explored the role of orchestration technology and business process modelling in connecting disparate systems and improving user experience. Members noted that inconsistent business processes across forces can undermine interoperability, even when shared systems exist. Members discuss the importance of aligning workflows as a critical element to maximising the benefits of technical integration.
Engagement and collaboration
Members discussed the need for continued collaboration between policing, government bodies (Home Office, NPCC, MoJ), and industry as essential to making sustained progress. The group highlighted the need for sharing lessons learned (both successes and failures), including contributions from NHS, MoJ and other public-sector experts, and widening the participation base across forces and organisations.
Next steps and interesting links
Follow-up actions include finalising and reviewing the interoperability handbook and maturity assessment once finalised, reviewing the NPCC problem book to map interoperability challenges, continue to engage with the Home Office, MoJ, and national bodies to strengthen alignment, and provide feedback to the JES programme on the Policing Reform white paper via the upcoming techUK member feedback session and survey.
To read the previous forum sessions, visit our Interoperability Hub.
