Metropolitan Police awards Atos with £350m IT deal

The Metropolitan Police has agreed a contract with Atos that will support its ongoing efforts to modernise and simplify applications. In full, the £350m six-year deal will see Atos supply application and service management as well as application security, and will also support technology used in frontline policing. The agreement could be extended by two years and further services could be added, including managed cloud services. “Our collaboration with Atos will provide a stable digital foundation for our officers and staff, supporting the ongoing modernisation and simplification of our application landscape and driving greater efficiency and effectiveness across the technology that underpins frontline policing,” said Jamie Hewitt, director of digital product delivery at MPS. Frontline policing technologies include artificial intelligence (AI), mobile ecosystems and digital platforms. All this is underpinned by highly secure infrastructure. Michael Herron, head of Atos UK, said: “We look forward to continuing to deliver secure, reliable and scalable services that support both frontline policing and the communities the MPS serves.” Atos is eyeing more business in the UK public sector, with a recently announced investment in secure UK infrastructure. The establishment of UK-based infrastructure, which houses AI capabilities, will support the company’s plan to grow its UK public sector business. Organisations such as the Met Police require highly secure infrastructure accredited to the highest level required in government. Atos currently has UK public sector contracts with the Ministry of Defence, HMRC, the Home Office, and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, as well as the state-owned National Savings and Investments bank. Speaking to Computer Weekly soon after his appointment as UK head a year ago, Herron at Atos said the public sector push was part of the reason the company launched UK-based infrastructure, which meets the highest levels of security and government accreditation. Wider Atos strategy Separately, Atos is also investing in education for young people. It has recently made several commitments to educating the UK’s youth. In February, also in the West Midlands, Atos’s first UK apprentices began training to become IT staff of the future as part of a programme to support professionals in the era of AI. Atos’s agentic factory, which will feature AI agents and people working together on customer IT projects, was opened at the supplier’s delivery centre in Solihull, on the outskirts of Birmingham. Meanwhile last week, also in the West Midlands, Atos said it was investing money into Tech First Youth’s Future Readiness initiative, which will see schools and colleges in the region receive free access to resources. It will have a focus on AI discernment, which is the ability to identify when AI outputs should be used or when caution is required. Although AI is a concept dating back decades, the widespread take-up of generative AI began around 2022, with the release of ChatGPT. It was a wake-up call for governments and businesses alike, which must prepare for inevitable disruption. Likewise, seemingly all careers must be tailored to work with AI technology. Because AI will touch all of society, the programme aims to use the AI training resources across the curriculum rather than as an individual course. Read more about AI and jobs A recent Yale study finds AI is reshaping jobs, automating tasks and boosting demand for analytical and collaborative skills, with overall employment remaining stable . Swedish fintech has gradually replaced half of its staff with artificial intelligence and doubled its revenues . These 18 job types – including administrative, customer service and teaching – might be replaced, augmented or improved by the latest artificial intelligence wave .