Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will set out (a) when and (b) in which locations the Emergency Services Network has been used in an operational setting.

The cost to the taxpayers of Great Britain for Airwave is as follows:

2021/22 £293.66m

2022/23 £318.55m

2023/24 £197.01m

2024/25 £153.48m

As the financial accounts for 2025/26 have not been finalised or audited yet, we cannot provide expenditure for that period.

The costing information relates to England, Scotland and Wales Police Core only, as Home Office does not have visibility of Airwave costs borne directly by other Funding Sponsor Bodies.

As the Emergency Services Network is currently not operational, it is not possible to provide these costs.

Leveraging EE’s Commercial Network of circa 20,000 masts, the main build of ESN masts to provide mobile coverage across Great Britain is largely complete. Of the additional 1047 ESN masts due to be built, 987 are completed and
operationally live. Specifically, an additional 13 new sites have been built in Shropshire, with 1 of these sited in the constituency of North Shropshire.

Across Great Britain, this is already providing a benefit to the public by enabling over one thousand additional 999 calls every month to be made in areas where previously there was no coverage. Work continues at pace to provide network access in areas where localised coverage is needed; these include densely populated communities, as well as sports stadiums, and shopping centres.

ESMCP’s priority is to achieve the right balance between credible plans that ensures user confidence and the need to deliver ESN as quickly and safely as possible to enable the shutdown of Airwave.

The Home Office’s Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP) is responsible for managing the Emergency Services Network (ESN). ESN is a critical communications system and will replace the current Airwave service used by the emergency services in Great Britain.

ESN is currently in the delivery phase, during which ESMCP will implement systems, platforms, processes, hardware and software to be ready and assured for deployment. Current delivery timelines are from January 2025 to 2027 with phased deployment planned to begin in 2027 to emergency services users. The target date for transition to be completed is 31 December 2029 after which Airwave will be safely shut down.

ESN is a capability which is still under development and as such it is not operational. The products and services under development have been tested at several public events such as Notting Hill Carnival, Glastonbury and London New Year’s Eve Celebrations to validate progress and inform the next stages of the programme.

This is not a data set held by the Home Office’s Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme centrally. Such Data is owned and managed by individual forces across the three emergency services and the devolved nations of Scotland and Wales.

As in all Police force areas in Great Britain, the Home Office contract with Airwave provides for hand-portable coverage in built-up areas and vehicle coverage on all major and minor roads, including all rural areas.

Police forces can then elect to further enhance coverage in their areas if deemed necessary to meet their own specific operational needs. West Mercia Police have contracted further areas of hand-portable coverage from Airwave using this option.

Shropshire and North Shropshire are covered by West Mercia Police, together with Worcestershire and Herefordshire. Collectively, availability of the Airwave radio network across West Mercia throughout 2025 was strong.

The contractual target for Airwave network availability for all police forces is 99.74% each month. In 2025 monthly network availability across the 89 Airwave sites in West Mercia varied between 99.79% and 100%, with an overall mean average across the 12 months of 99.94%.

Each quarter a tri-party meeting is held between West Mercia Police, the Home Office, and Motorola to review the quality and availability of the Airwave network, along with any other Airwave related issues. During 2025 there were no major Airwave service issues raised by West Mercia Police.