Met Police begins using 'Amazon-style' procurement
The UK's biggest police force, the Metropolitan Police Service, has started to use an 'Amazon-style' online procurement mechanism.
The Met (MPS) will use the National Police Procurement Hub to browse and purchase IT, and goods and services such as body armour and vehicles.
"The MPS have delivered a remarkable achievement in going live with the hub in five months from a standing start," said Met director of procurement Lee Tribe in a statement.
The Met is the 13th UK police force to start using the hub. Another 23 forces are working on implementing the procurement mechanism, with almost all forces expected to be using it by spring 2013, the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) said in a statement on Tuesday.
So far, over £3.2m has been spent through the hub on more than 3,700 orders, according to the NPIA.
When the hub was launched in August 2011, the NPIA said it expected all 43 forces in England and Wales to be using it by June 2012. The NPIA does not mandate procurement practices for police forces, but had not said why the implementation date had slipped at the time of writing.
The NPIA said on Tuesday that the hub would save police forces £69m over six years — up from its original 2011 estimate of £30m.