Crime agency prepares for £500m tech revamp

The Serious Organised Crime Agency is preparing to embark on a £500m project to integrate its IT systems.

Soca is looking for suppliers for the project, to begin in 2010, to bring together around 50 systems that the agency inherited when it was formed two years ago.

Soca currently uses a mix of systems it took on from the National Crime Squad, the National Criminal Intelligence Service and part of the investigation arm of HM Revenue & Customs.

One of Soca's roles is to combat high-tech crime, a duty it took over from the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit, which was rolled into Soca in 2006.

The IT integration project is worth between £300m and £500m.

A spokesman for Soca said: "It is about streamlining our systems and developing an information management system to allow us to change and adapt to future demands."