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1716927

registered interest
date	09/05/2024
answering body	House of Commons Commission
answering dept id	18
answering dept short name	House of Commons Commission
answering dept sort name	House of Commons Commission
hansard heading	Parliamentary Estate: Telephone Systems
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the hon. Member for Broxbourne, representing the House of Commons Commission, for what reason the Polycom phone system malfunctioned on 9 May 2024.
tabling member constituency	Warley
tabling member printed	John Spellar
uin	25405
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/05/2024 answer text <p>I am sorry that the right hon. Member and all colleagues continue to experience inconvenience in telephony services which are currently below standard. The latest issue with handsets underlines the need for the solution which the Parliamentary Digital Service is implementing later this year.</p><p>Polycom devices need to communicate with an external supplier to register the device and make/receive calls. Each device communicates with one of two external servers. One of the servers experienced issues on Thursday 9 May and any device that attempted to connect to this server was impacted by the outage. Polycom phones communicating with the working server did not experience an outage.</p><p>The first report the Digital Service received of handsets not working was at 12.13pm on Thursday 9 May. The team declared a major incident shortly afterwards and service was restored at 9.46am on 10 May.</p><p>The Voice Programme is upgrading and replacing the existing telephony infrastructure and when implemented, handsets will have 99.999% reliability of connecting.</p> answering member constituency Broxbourne answering member printed Sir Charles Walker question first answered 15/05/2024 14:11:41 answering member 1493 label Biography information for Sir Charles Walker
tabling member	318 label Biography information for Lord Spellar

1701617

registered interest
date	16/04/2024
answering body	The Senior Deputy Speaker
answering dept id	204
answering dept short name
answering dept sort name	Senior Deputy Speaker (HoL)
hansard heading	Parliamentary Estate: Telephone Systems
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker on which dates and at what times the failure of the Polycom telephone system on the parliamentary estate started and ended, and why it took so long for the system to be restored.
tabling member printed	Lord Marlesford
uin	HL3848
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 30/04/2024 answer text <p>The Senior Deputy Speaker has asked me, as Chair of the Services Committee, to respond on his behalf. The Parliamentary Digital Service (PDS) were made aware of a potential issue affecting Polycom telephone handsets, used with the Microsoft telephone service (MS Teams) on Friday 12th April 2024. Following a thorough investigation, a root cause was identified and resolved on Tuesday 16th April 2024. Restoration of service following a major telephony incident depends on third parties. The Voice Programme is upgrading and replacing the existing telephony infrastructure with a streamlined and less complex support arrangement. PDS are expecting to rollout the service over the summer 2024.</p> answering member printed Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall question first answered 30/04/2024 11:23:16 answering member 2506 label Biography information for Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall
tabling member	1854 label Biography information for Lord Marlesford

1701618

registered interest
date	16/04/2024
answering body	The Senior Deputy Speaker
answering dept id	204
answering dept short name
answering dept sort name	Senior Deputy Speaker (HoL)
hansard heading	Parliamentary Estate: Telephone Systems
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker on what date at what cost to public funds the Polycom telephone system was installed on the parliamentary estate, and whether Siemens was invited to tender for this contract.
tabling member printed	Lord Marlesford
uin	HL3849
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 30/04/2024 answer text <p>The Senior Deputy Speaker has asked me, as Chair of the Services Committee, to respond on his behalf. In 2016, a procurement process was completed adhering to EU procurement regulations (OJEU) for a unified communications solution to replace the previous telephone system which was end of life and could no longer be supported or maintained. This restricted OJEU process was open to all vendors. Siemens (Unify) made an initial application but were not taken through to stage two of the process to tender.</p><p>The cost of the Skype for Business Programme, which included key steps in Parliament’s transition from a copper wire telephone system to Voice over Internet Protocol, was £8.3 million and included the cost of the Polycom handsets currently in use. Implementation of the Polycom handsets began in November 2017.</p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member printed Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall question first answered 30/04/2024 11:22:33 answering member 2506 label Biography information for Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall
tabling member	1854 label Biography information for Lord Marlesford

1701619

registered interest
date	16/04/2024
answering body	The Senior Deputy Speaker
answering dept id	204
answering dept short name
answering dept sort name	Senior Deputy Speaker (HoL)
hansard heading	Parliamentary Estate: Telephone Systems
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker whether the Parliamentary Digital Service plans to replace the Polycom telephone system on the parliamentary estate and, if so, what is the budget for this project.
tabling member printed	Lord Marlesford
uin	HL3850
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 30/04/2024 answer text <p>The Senior Deputy Speaker has asked me, as Chair of the Services Committee, to respond on his behalf. The Voice Programme has been set up to address service quality and user experience priorities regarding telephony in Parliament. The programme’s high-level benefits include increasing business resilience and value for money and improving customer experience across telephony services. The programme is upgrading and replacing the existing telephony infrastructure (a combination of on premise MS Teams and Skype for Business) and has completed procurement of a unified communications service, to be implemented later this year, that will deliver resilient telephony. Initially, the new service is expected- to re-utilise the existing Polycom telephone handsets, however, replacement telephone handsets will be introduced as part of product lifecycle replacement.</p><p>The House of Lords Services Committee, the House of Commons Administration Committee and the Business Resilience Board are being consulted on implementation plans for the new service.</p><p>The Investment Committee and Accounting Officers have approved a business case for the Voice Programme which has an approved whole life cost of £6.37m. These costs cover implementation, programme resources, licences, and support costs until FY28/29.</p> answering member printed Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall question first answered 30/04/2024 11:19:05 answering member 2506 label Biography information for Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall
tabling member	1854 label Biography information for Lord Marlesford

1676506

registered interest
date	07/12/2023
answering body	The Senior Deputy Speaker
answering dept id	204
answering dept short name
answering dept sort name	Senior Deputy Speaker (HoL)
hansard heading	Parliamentary Estate: Telephone Systems
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker what was the cost to public funds of replacing the Siemens telephone system on the parliamentary estate with the Microsoft Polycom system; and what plans they have to replace the standard desk telephone sets with ones which are easier to use by those with impaired visual capability.
tabling member printed	Lord Marlesford
uin	HL989
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/12/2023 answer text <p>The Senior Deputy Speaker has asked me, as Chair of the Services Committee, to respond on his behalf. The cost of the original programme that replaced Parliament’s copper wire telephone system with voice over internet protocol (VoIP) telephony, including the Microsoft Polycom handsets, was £8.3 million. It was necessary to update the telephony as the previous telephone system was end of life and can no longer be supported or maintained.</p><p>Members and other Parliamentary users with visual impairments can use speech recognition software to use Teams. Support is available from the Parliamentary Digital Service for anyone requiring help to use the system. As part of implementation of a new telephony solution for Parliament in the first half of 2024 the Voice Programme team is exploring options for more user-friendly telephone handsets including accessible solutions for visually impaired users.</p> answering member printed Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall question first answered 19/12/2023 13:55:18 answering member 2506 label Biography information for Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall
tabling member	1854 label Biography information for Lord Marlesford

1546645

registered interest
date	29/11/2022
answering body	The Senior Deputy Speaker
answering dept id	204
answering dept short name
answering dept sort name	Senior Deputy Speaker (HoL)
hansard heading	Parliamentary Estate: Telephone Systems
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker what assessment he has made of the installation of the telephone system on the parliamentary estate; and what procurement lessons have been learned for the Restoration and Renewal Programme with regard to (1) cost, (2) ratio of possible to actual users, (3) consultation and involvement of users, (4) unnecessary capabilities and specifications, and (5) efficiency for its primary purpose.
tabling member printed	Lord Mawson
uin	HL3851
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/12/2022 answer text <p>There have been several recent incidents with desk-based handsets. These incidents have had protracted resolution times and the Parliamentary Digital Service (PDS) is dependent on third parties, including Microsoft, to identify and fix the root cause. <br> <br>The need to improve voice services has been identified and PDS is working closely with relevant service providers to resolve these issues. In improving telephony services as part of the ‘Voice Programme’, members will be engaged through user groups to ensure needs and requirements are met. <br> <br>PDS has a robust lessons learned process that is well-embedded and the Voice Programme is procuring a new telephony solution to support communication services in Parliament using a <em>Crown Commercial Services framework</em> with a focus on increasing quality, efficiency and value. <br> <br>This work will not be left to the Restoration and Renewal Programme – both because the timescales for implementation would be too long, and because the implementation of telephony is not completely tied to the fabric of the building. <br> <br>The two Houses agreed a new approach to the restoration and renewal of the Palace of Westminster, as agreed in the resolution passed by the House on 13 July [HL deb. Col. 1497]. All proposals for the restoration works will require parliamentary approval, as set out in section 7 of the Parliamentary Buildings (Restoration and Renewal) Act 2019.</p> answering member printed Lord Gardiner of Kimble question first answered 12/12/2022 17:23:48 answering member 4161 label Biography information for Lord Gardiner of Kimble
tabling member	3830 label Biography information for Lord Mawson