National Guidance Framework

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National Guidance Framework

Foreword

This National Guidance Framework (NGF) establishes the principles of the operational partnership required between TiS and the Police Service. It reflects the principles that ACPO recommends for adoption by individual police forces and covers issues of national significance and policy related to the operation of the TCC. It is developed from the Guiding Principles agreed between the then ACPO Traffic Committee and the Highways Agency in April 1998. The signatories to this agreement subscribe to the principles of co-operation and partnership reflected in this document.

The National Guidance Framework is signed by:

Foreword

National Guidance Framework

National Guidance Framework between The Association of Chief Police Officers, the Highways Agency and Traffic Information Services (TiS) Limited for the Operation of the Highways Agency's National Traffic Control Centre

"The initiative to be customer orientated rather than technology or commercially driven with an evident service based approach."

"The progress and development of the project to continue on a partnership basis with full exchange of information and appropriate police representation and involvement, throughout the development, to achieve smooth implementation and operation of the project."

(Quotes from the ACPO guiding principles for the TCC project)

National Guidance Framework

Policy Overview

1. Summary

1.1.1 The prime objective of the Traffic Control Centre (TCC) Project is to reduce the effects of congestion on England's motorways and major trunk roads - the Core Network (see the map at the end of this section) - by informing motorists about incidents and congestion. Housed in a new building and supplementing existing equipment with new traffic sensors and variable message signs, TiS will provide traffic information and advice on wide-area diversions for Core Network traffic. The introduction of the TCC will not alter the Police Service's role of incident management on the Core Network. Safety and tactical considerations will continue to take precedence over strategic (wide-area) issues. Indeed, it is anticipated that TiS will, through strategic traffic management, help to alleviate the traffic impact at the site of an incident and thus assist the police in its incident management role.

1.1.2 The TCC Project has been developed as part of Government policy with active police participation throughout the development process.

1.1.3 To operate this facility effectively, partnership with the police is a vital element in providing service to the mutual customer, the travelling public. A positive, day-to-day close relationship with the police is crucial to the success of this project, where one of the objectives is to develop an overall resource neutral solution for the police, providing benefits in return for services.

1.1.4 The strategic management of traffic around incidents will provide benefits to the police, and the impact on police resources will be reduced by:

1.1.5 Additional support services, providing information about traffic flows, up to date contact information and historical analysis will further contribute to effective police resource utilisation and assist in its primary role in public safety and incident management.

1.1.6 The police will be able to assist by the provision of timely incident traffic information to TiS about the nature, timing and duration of an incident, and the communications medium to achieve this will be agreed with individual forces.

1.2 Development

1.2.1 This National Guidance Framework (NGF) establishes the principles of the operational partnership required between TiS and the Police Service. It reflects the principles that ACPO recommends for adoption by individual police forces and covers issues of national significance and policy related to the operation of the TCC. It is developed from the Guiding Principles agreed between the then ACPO Traffic Committee and the HA in April 1998 (see Annex A), within the policy contexts set out below. See Annex C for a glossary of terms and abbreviations.

1.3 Adoption of Recommendations

1.3.1 While it is recommended that the general principles described in this document should be adopted nationally, changes in local conditions and circumstances will be reflected in the individual Detailed Local Operating Agreements (DLOAs), which will be made with individual police forces.

1.3.2 All parties recognise that this agreement and the subsequent DLOAs are only the start of an operational partnership relationship between TiS and the Police Service that will need to be developed and strengthened in response to operational experience.

1.4 Policy Context

1.4.1 The TCC Project has been developed by the HA to meet the objectives of the Government White Paper "A New Deal for Transport: Better for Everyone". It also supports ACPO's Roads Policing Strategy and recognises police priorities as:

1.4.2 The relevant HA policy objectives are:

1.4.3 This NGF will be continuously reviewed throughout the life of this project to assist in the achievement of joint aims of improving services to the travelling public. The review process will take account of other initiatives being developed by the Police and the HA.

1.5 Timing

1.5.1 As part of the setup phase, DLOAs should be secured by the end of August 2002. Some services, such as the operation of the Midlands Driver Information System (MDIS) and some of the Variable Message Signs (VMS) will be introduced before the full services. TCC services will be gradually introduced in the latter part of 2003 with the full operational service in place by early 2004. The TCC Agreement will conclude in August 2011 although new agreements are expected to be made that will take TCC operations beyond this period.

1.6 Operational Partners

1.6.1 For the TCC Project to achieve its objectives a close operating partnership is needed between TiS, the police and other interested parties including Local Highway Authorities (LHAs), other network operators such as the National Assembly for Wales, the Scottish Executive, privately financed roads, Transport for London, the media and information service providers. Similar arrangements to those with the police have been put in place with other parties.

1.7 Prime Function of the TCC

1.7.1 The prime function of the TCC is to collect, process and distribute strategic (wide-area) traffic information, including the setting of roadside variable message signs (VMS) and other dissemination media, using pre-agreed protocols, to assist travellers in planning their journeys. The TCC will also support the HA and its operational partners in optimising the use, management and operation of the network. A plan showing the extent of the network is included at the end of this section. Background information, giving further details about the TCC Project may be found in the booklet "The Highway's Agency's Traffic Control Centre Project". For availability of this document see the contact details at the end of this document (section 4).

1.8 Summary of Roles and Responsibilities

TiS The Police The LHA
Supporting event planning Event planning Event planning
Monitoring of the Core Network for wide area strategic traffic management. Monitoring of all networks for incident management. Monitoring of the LHA network for traffic management.
Support Police in incident management for the Core Network and for LHA networks that interact with the Core Network. Provide relevant incident information to LHAs for their networks and to TiS where it has an impact on the Core Network. Support Police in incident management for LHA network and provide TiS with information where it has an impact on the Core Network.
Control VMS for wide area strategic traffic management purposes. Continue to control VMS and signals for incident management and safety purposes. Coordinate LHA VMS signs and signals with TiS.
Set wide-area diversions within Core Network for strategic traffic management purposes. Continue to implement emergency local diversions for incident management purposes. Manage emergency local diversions within the LHA network.
Provide strategic traffic information to media etc, advising on trunk road conditions and alternative routes. Continue to provide to the media etc non-traffic information on all roads and traffic information on the LHA network. Provide traffic information to media etc, advising on local road conditions and alternative routes.
Collect, process and store traffic and network data for use by the HA, police forces and other operational partners. Enforcement and investigative activity. Collect, process and store traffic and network data for use by LHAs, the Police Service and other operational partners.

1.9 Traffic Information Services (TiS) Limited (TCC Co)

1.9.1 TCC Co is a private company retained by the HA to design, implement and operate, on its behalf, the national TCC. TCC Co's Prime Sub-Contractor is Serco Limited and, in turn, one of its sub-contractors is Halcrow Group Ltd.

1.9.2 Collectively TCC Co, Serco Limited and Serco Limited's sub-contractors are known under the consortium name of TiS. TiS will operate under policy guidance from the HA, and its contract requires it to develop and agree the operational practices described in this NGF and the subsequent DLOAs.

1.9.3 TCC Co hereby authorises Serco Limited to agree and sign on its behalf with police forces all DLOAs related to this NGF.

1.10 TCC Core Network

This diagram shows the HA's motorway and trunk road network to be operated under the TCC Project, as defined in the TCC Agreement.

map of Core Network

Download map (330KB PDF)

1.11 Police Force Boundaries and Police Control Office (PCO) Locations

This diagram shows the boundaries of the police forces and the PCOs controlling motorways where a Control Office Base System (COBS) is installed.

Police Force Boundaries and Police Control Office (PCO) Locations

Download map (0.5MB PDF)

Policy Overview

Policy Detail

2.1 Evaluation Criteria

2.1.1 Benefits of Strategic Management: The strategic (wide-area) management of traffic around incidents will provide benefits to the police at the incident itself. The overall impact on police resources will be reduced by:

2.1.2 TiS Services to the Police: TiS can provide assistance to Police Control Rooms, where requested by them, and provision is made for this within the scope of the provisions of the TCC Agreement. The scope and extent of assistance provided by TiS to each Police Control Room and the associated operational procedures and communications methods will be described in the DLOA.

2.1.3 Police Control Room Services to TiS: Police Control Rooms can facilitate TiS operations through the following:

2.2 Implementation

2.2.1 Operational Working arrangements: When operational, TiS operators will be working with local police forces in accordance with the DLOAs and to the guidelines laid down in this NGF. On a day-to-day basis TiS will be monitoring traffic on the network, liaising with the police and other parties and setting strategic responses where and when needed.

2.2.2 Figure 1 below illustrates the key areas for agreement for the TCC operational phase.

6 - Evaluation and Review5 - Information Dissemination1 - TIS Services to the Police2 - Police Control Room Services to TIS3 - Monitoring of the Network4 - Response to EventsKey Areas for DLOA Agreements for the Operational Phase

Figure 1 - Key Areas for DLOA Agreements for the Operational Phase

2.2.3 DLOA Development Phase: In the set-up phase of this project the principles demonstrated in this document will be further developed to reflect the individual characteristics of each police force through Detailed Local Operating Agreements (DLOAs). Agreed with each police force, these will contain specific data and operating procedures.

2.2.4 Figure 2 illustrates the process for the development of the operational partnership.

6 - Operational Procedures5 - DLOA agreement1- Spirit of Co-operation4 - Understanding respective operations3 - NGF agreement2 - AwarenessDevelopment of the Operational Partnership

Figure 2 - Development of the Operational Partnership

2.3 Raising Awareness

2.3.1 TiS will provide a briefing on the background and purpose of the project at the first meetings with individual police forces. In return, it is expected that TiS will receive briefings from each police force on aspects of its operations and other issues that are considered to be relevant to effective operational liaison. This process will develop a mutual understanding amongst both parties of the key organisational and operational issues including the project boundaries and contacts. Annex B includes an indicative list of the type of information that TiS will request from police forces during the course of the meetings to develop the proposed DLOAs.

2.4 Police Resources

2.4.1 DLOA Discussions: Police forces are encouraged to make available suitable personnel to take part in the discussions to enable the DLOAs to be developed and agreed within a mutually determined programme. TiS will arrange the meetings and venues, provide secretarial support and will be responsible for progressing and delivering the DLOAs. The process for delivering each DLOA is shown in Annex B, but will be varied to suit local needs. Police forces are not expected to make charges to TiS or the HA for their involvement in this process.

2.4.2 Operational resources: In the development of operational procedures care will be exercised to ensure that the net effect on police resources of the operation of the TCC will as far as possible be neutral. Furthermore, wherever practical, opportunities will be taken which contribute to improved police and TiS resource utilisation and the continuous improvement of service to road users.

2.5 VMS Message Set

2.5.1 The VMS message set will follow the guidelines set out in the ACPO/HA document "The Joint ACPO & HA Policy & Procedures for the use of Variable Message Signs" available from the HA. Prioritisation of messages will be agreed nationally within the spirit of the guidelines and are outside the scope of the DLOA.

2.6 Closed Circuit Television (CCTV)

2.6.1 In the pursuit of a seamless collaborative delivery of services to the joint customer, the preferred approach is joint access to the HA CCTV systems by the police and TiS, as described below.

2.7 Data Protection

2.7.1 It is the responsibility of TiS to demonstrate to police forces and the HA that any systems for the transfer and storage of information originating from Police Systems are in line with ACPO policy and the Data Protection Act.

2.8 Data Security

2.8.1 The information exchange process should ensure that any systems used for the transfer and storage of information are in line with BS 7799 for data security, including firewall and anti-virus protection and user-level access control. The extent of data security between TiS and the local police force will be subject to discussion under the DLOA process.

2.9 National Strategy for Police Information Systems (NSPIS)

2.9.1 TiS will work with the HA, ACPO and other relevant police organisations, including the Police Information Technology Organisation (PITO), on the development of the National Strategy for Police Information Systems (NSPIS). This is to secure a standard interface between Police Command and Control Systems and the TCC, to allow the export of certain limited data. As part of this obligation, TiS will participate in discussions with the NSPIS contractor to establish the technical feasibility and requirements and with the Police Service to reach agreements regarding security and other institutional issues.

2.10 Harmonisation of Existing Strategic Traffic Management Operations

2.10.1 The HA is already working in partnership with the police on existing driver information systems, e.g. Midlands Driver Information System (MDIS), the Yorkshire Driver Information System (YDIS) and the Manchester Driver Information System (MANDIS). TiS will build on these regional systems in the implementation of the wider strategy and take responsibility for the strategic operational aspects.

Policy Detail

Operational Principles

3.1 Communication Methods

3.1.1 The communications systems, protocols and procedures will be the key means by which TiS services to the police, and the police services to TiS, will be delivered. These are a major element in the DLOA agreements.

3.1.2 Communications Systems: TiS will provide systems for communication and information exchange where necessary between Police Control Rooms and the TCC, which will be agreed through the DLOA discussions. The choice of system(s) will be made on the basis of a best value assessment based on the extent and importance of the information and the cost of providing the system, which will take account of, but not be limited to, the layout of control rooms and space availability, the residual life of the systems to which an interface is required and any plans for Police Control Room re-location, re-equipping or restructuring.

3.1.3 Communications Protocols and Procedures: TiS will develop with individual forces protocols and procedures that will be used to conduct day-to-day communications. They will reflect the methods currently in use by the police and the outcome of the DLOA discussions about the communications systems and the mutual exchange of services.

3.2 Location Referencing

3.2.1 Clarity in the description of the network is also vital. To achieve this, TiS will develop a facility(s) to interpret the location referencing system(s) used by an individual police force (Explanatory note: Each police force uses systems to describe locations on the network. Similarly, TiS will use a system to describe locations in its databases. These systems may not be suitable for describing locations in traffic information made available to the public, for which colloquial descriptions will be required. TiS will need to be able to accurately translate between the systems used by its operational partners and describe those locations to the general public in terms that are easily recognised and clearly understood.) The system(s) to be used in communications with each force are to be agreed in the DLOAs. No change to force systems will be requested.

3.3 The Co-ordination of Traffic Management Strategies

3.3.1 A set of strategic traffic management responses will be developed for the whole Core Network. These responses will include a set of procedures detailing the wide area actions to be followed in the setting of the plans and will be supplied to the police. Real time responses will be based on these plans and will take into account the traffic conditions, road capacity (including roadworks) and weather. Responses will be coordinated in accordance with procedures that have been agreed in the DLOAs. The procedures will be based on the following principles:

3.4 Information Dissemination

3.4.1 Traffic Information to the Media and Other Parties: The DLOA will detail procedures to co-ordinate traffic information passed to the media and third parties. TiS will take over responsibility for providing traffic information related to the Core Network and off-Network events that impinge on it (in consultation with LHAs). Police forces and LHAs will continue their current arrangements for provision of traffic information on other roads.

3.4.2 Non-Traffic News: "Non-traffic news" (e.g. number of fatalities, extent of damage to vehicles, presence of emergency services) will remain the responsibility of police forces.

3.5 Evaluation and Review

3.5.1 Throughout the life of this project TiS will seek to improve the delivery of the service to the mutual customer, the travelling public. This will be achieved through a series of reviews. The review processes will be conducted by review boards, whose membership will be agreed within the DLOA.

3.5.2 Post Incident Media Briefing: Post incident comments will be dealt with and co-ordinated between HA and individual police force public relations departments, according to the joint ACPO/HA Media Guidance document published in August 1999 (copies available from the ACPO representative, HA/ACPO Partnership - see section 4 for details).

3.5.3 Debriefing Following Major Events: Where necessary the HA, TiS and police force(s) will meet following major events to review operations in order to identify best practice and to address any points of concern.

3.5.4 NGF and DLOA Review: The HA, TiS and individual police forces will review operational methods, practices and procedures in order to identify / share best practice, and to address any points of concern. As the need is identified by any of the parties, this NGF document will be the subject of review, which will incorporate any necessary changes. Any changes will be reflected in the DLOAs.

3.6 Conflict Resolution

3.6.1 It is TiS's intention to create flexible and strong working relationships. TiS will make every attempt to create an atmosphere where the use of a disputes procedure is unnecessary. However, should this ever be required, a four level procedure will be utilised that provides a method of handling any difficulties. In the first place, the procedure aims to resolve the issue at a local level. If this fails it is escalated through to higher levels of management. In the final stage, if the conflict between TiS and a Police Control Room still cannot be resolved, the HA's TCC Contract Manager will then endeavour to facilitate a solution. These procedures will be documented in the DLOA.

3.7 Access to Police Control Rooms

3.7.1 Access to Police Control Rooms by TiS representatives for development, liaison and other TCC Project related purposes will be in accordance with HA and local police force agreed protocols.

Operational Principles

Contacts

4.1.1 For further information or copies of the documents mentioned in this document, contact the following:

For details of HA policy and copies of the TCC Project brochure:

TCC Operating Partnerships Manager

The Highways Agency
Room C8
5 Broadway
Broad Street
Birmingham
B15 1BL

Tel: 08459 556 575
Fax: 0121 678 8160

Email:tcc@highways.gsi.gov.uk

For details of ACPO policy:

ACPO representative, HA/ACPO Partnership

Room 13/25
St. Christopher House
Southwark Street
London
SE1 0TE

Tel: 020 7921 4357
Fax: 020 7921 4851

Copies of this document and DLOAs (when developed):

Liaison Manager, TiS

TiS Kirkleatham
The Innovation Centre
Vienna Court
Kirkleatham Business Park
Redcar
TS10 5SH

Tel: 01642 777 865
Fax: 01642 777 853

Email: tis.liaison@tcc.serco.com

Contacts

Annexes

  1. History and Guiding Principles
  2. Information Requested and Meeting Plans
  3. Glossary of Terms and Abbreviations

Annex A

A 1 Consultation with the Police Service

A 1.1 The TCC Project was conceived in 1995 and the concept was subject to widespread consultation in 1997.

A 1.2 It was clear from the beginning that the relationship with the Police Service in general, and individual forces in particular, would be key to the success of the project. One of the first activities was to establish arrangements to involve ACPO. Day-to-day liaison was delegated to the HA/ACPO Partnership Team.

A 1.3 A joint HA/ACPO workshop was held in Autumn 1997, attended by operational police officers, to identify the interfaces and issues that needed to be addressed. The results of this workshop were subject to national police consultation and reported to the ACPO Traffic Committee, who agreed a set of Guiding Principles and within which they supported the development of the Project.

A 1.4 Since then, ACPO has assisted the HA in the identification of issues of interest to the Police Service and the means through which those issues were addressed in the TCC Agreement. This was achieved through a number of workshops. In particular, input from workshops established that local variations in police operational practices would impact on the interface with TiS operations and require appropriate variations in communications, procedures and protocols. This was included in the TCC Agreement by a requirement for a DLOA with each local police force.

A 1.5 ACPO also carried out a national consultation on the feasibility of exporting limited data to the TCC from Police Command and Control Systems. This concept received widespread support. The results of the consultation enabled the TCC Project tenderers to evaluate command and control links within a system of communications between the TCC and Police Control Rooms that would meet the requirements set out in the Guiding Principles.

A 1.6 The TCC Agreement ensures that ACPO and individual police forces will continue to be involved in the detailed development of the project by the successful consortium through the agreement of this National Guidance Framework and subsequent Detailed Local Operating Agreements.

A 1.7 Towards the end of the tender negotiation period, seminars were sponsored by ACPO in each of its English regions to brief representatives of local forces. No new issues were raised at these seminars, demonstrating the effectiveness of the involvement of the Police Service in the development of the project.

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A 2 Guiding Principles Agreed Between ACPO and the Highways Agency

It is considered to be essential that the project should be progressed, implemented and operated in the spirit of partnership and teamwork with all parties committed to understanding each other's roles and responsibilities and the development of mutual trust and support. To that end it is proposed that the following Guiding Principles should be used to steer the next phases of the project in which specifications and procedures and/or protocols are drafted:

(i) The initiative to be customer orientated rather than technology or commercially driven with an evident service based approach.

(ii) The progress and development of the project to continue on a partnership basis with full exchange of information and appropriate police representation and involvement, throughout the development, to achieve smooth implementation and operation of the project.

(iii) That the implementation of the TCC should seek to avoid additional resource burdens on the police service except where they wish to take advantage of any opportunities to exploit the TCC facilities to benefit police operations.

(iv) Wherever possible opportunities for resource efficiencies for the police service should be identified.

(v) Operating procedures and criteria should be developed and documented through effective and detailed dialogue with all relevant organisations.

(vi) In order to ensure necessary levels of compatibility with current and developing police systems [e.g. National Strategy for Police Information Systems (NSPIS), interfaces will need to be discussed with the relevant ACPO Group (in relation to developing systems) and individual forces (in relation to existing systems).

(vii) Procedures, protocols and over-rides will be needed to ensure police (tactical) operational needs (for dealing with incidents and emergencies) have appropriate priority over wider (strategic) traffic management needs.

(viii) The police service to retain full control and (tactical) management of incidents and emergencies with the TCC providing supporting services and advice where required.

(ix) In order to ensure that any (eventual) transfer of call handling to the TCC meets required standards, call handling procedures, standards and activity timings for emergency and priority calls to be subject agreed monitoring. (Note: This is no longer relevant as call handling is not included in the TCC Agreement.)

(x) Steps to be taken to build mutual confidence and team-working between staff in PCOs and the TCC backed-up by conflict resolutions procedures and agreed levels of authority.

(xi) The PCOs to promptly provide the TCC with information by agreed means about all incidents, emergencies and other unusual conditions which are likely to have a significant effect on road conditions and/or journey times.

(xii) Agreements to be put in place to facilitate mutual access to appropriate databases.

(xiii) Alternative routing strategies to be used for strategic traffic management and in response to emergency closures to be developed in partnership with local police, local authorities and other emergency services.

(xiv) Real-time safeguards to be built-in to implementation procedures to ensure that the setting of strategic and /or tactical messages (or the tactical over-ride of strategic messages) do not result in confusing, conflicting or inappropriate messages to drivers whether those messages are set by the TCC, PCO, LA Control Rooms (e.g. ROMANSE) or Private Operators (e.g. Dartford Crossings).

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Annex B

As a guide to resources required for the police during these discussions, the type of information requested is set out below. This information will be used to prepare the technical infrastructure for the project and to inform the development of the DLOAs.

B 1 Institutional

B 1.1 Understanding the specific operation

B 1.2 Background: Confirmation of the network for which the police force takes operational responsibilities, particularly local arrangements and network boundaries.

B 1.3 Local area information: readily available information about incident cluster sites and local congestion patterns.

B 1.4 Liaison: Understanding the current arrangements for liaison with other relevant parties (e.g. contractors, adjoining police forces, emergency services, LHAs).

B 1.5 Information Flow: Understanding how traffic information is currently handled to develop sensible procedures for working with the local control rooms. TiS will investigate the use of automated methods of gathering the information to minimise impact on the police activities.

B 1.6 Incident Management: Understanding how incidents and other road restricting movements are currently handled to develop sensible procedures.

B 1.7 Dissemination: One of the major tools is informing the Media about the status of the network and any relevant incidents. To be effective TiS wishes to co-ordinate this with the current methods being used.

B 1.8 Signing: An understanding of the current use of signs and signals will help in the development of the procedures and strategic responses.

B 1.9 CCTV: TiS needs to understand how the CCTV system is used to assist in the implementation of the CCTV strategy.

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B 2. Equipment and Space

B 2.1 Computers: A thorough understanding of the existing computer and communications system is essential to make sure TiS suggests the most appropriate solution for both the police and TiS. The choice of system(s) will be made on the basis of a best value assessment based on the extent and importance of the information and the cost of providing the system, which will take account of, but not be limited to, the layout of control rooms and space availability, the residual life of the systems to which an interface is required, and any plans for Control Room re-location, re-equipping or restructuring.

B 2.2 Room Layout: Information on the layout of the control and equipment rooms will enable TiS make the optimum suggestions for the operational and technical solutions.

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B 3 Overview of the Objectives and Content of the Meetings

A series of meetings will be necessary to develop the DLOA. It is expected that appropriate and different personnel will be required for various elements of these discussions. There will be adequate time between each meeting to allow police forces to review each stage internally. Any opportunity to streamline this process of developing the DLOA will be adopted providing it achieves the mutual objectives of TiS and the local police force.

B 3.1 First Meeting Explanation of the background to project. Describe the elements of the DLOAs and how they will be developed. Agree the most efficient way to develop the DLOAS and meetings required. Discuss and issue proformas for standard data. Understand current procedures.

B 3.2 Second Meeting Discuss and develop the first set of procedures. Agree proformas for standard data.

B 3.3 Third Meeting Explain strategic responses, procedures and route sets. Finalise the first sets of procedures. Discuss and develop the second set of procedures.

B 3.4 Final Meeting Review strategic responses. Finalise and agree all procedures and information. Agree DLOA.

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B 4 Time Plan of Meetings

Time Plan of Meetings

Annex C

ACPO The Association of Chief Police Officers.

ACPO exists to promote leadership excellence by the chief officers of the Police Service, to assist in setting the policing agenda by providing professional opinion on key issues identified to the Government, appropriate organisations and individuals and to be the corporate voice of the Service.

Its members are senior police officers in the forty four forces of England, Wales and Northern Ireland, national police agencies and certain other forces in the UK and Channel Islands, and senior civilians. There are presently 280 members of ACPO.

ACPO's day-to-day work on policing policy issues is carried out through a national and regional network of Business Areas - Crime, General Policing, Road Policing, Race and Community Relations, Finance, Performance Management, Information Management and Personnel Management.

Core Network

The HA's motorway and trunk road network to be operated under the TCC Project, as defined in the TCC Agreement. See Section 1.10 for an indicative plan of the Core Network.

DLOA Detailed Local Operating Agreement.

The over-arching principles as defined in the police and LHA NGFs are expected to remain the same nationally, but variations in traffic operations exist from one local area to another. To accommodate this, DLOAs will be drafted with each local organisation, which will outline procedures and practices for effective operations between TiS and an individual LHA or an individual police force.

HA Highways Agency.

The Highways Agency is part of the Department of Transport, Local Government and the Regions (DTLR). It maintains, operates and improves England's trunk road and motorway network (the strategic road network), which includes the TCC Core Network.

LHA Local Highway Authority,

otherwise referred to as "Local Transport Authority", this is a Local Authority in England responsible for local roads under relevant legislation. A "Local Authority" is defined as a county council, a district council, a London borough council, a joint authority established by Part IV of the Local Government Act 1985 or the Common Council of the City of London in its capacity as local authority or any authority that is a successor authority to any of them.

NGF National Guidance Framework.

The principles governing operation of the TCC will be defined by two separate National Guidance Framework (NGF) agreements, one with the Police Service and the other with the representatives of LHAs. These NGFs will provide guidelines and a starting point for the detailed local agreements needed to define operations between TiS and each respective local police force and LHA.

NSPIS National Strategy for Police Information Systems.

A long term programme set up by the Home Office and ACPO with the aim of providing common IT applications for police forces in England and Wales. One of the key application areas is NSPIS Command and Control, which aims to provide next generation software to support real time resource management, incident management, and special operations management. It will also provide links to other NSPIS applications.

PCO Police Control Office.

A Police Control Room which is equipped to operate the National Motorway Communications System and other relevant systems and which currently undertakes activities such as answering emergency roadside telephones, controlling routine patrols, setting matrix signals, setting VMS and operating as an integrated Control Room that also handles emergency '999' calls.

PITO Police Information Technology Organisation.

A public body set up to develop IT support with the police. It includes representatives from ACPO, the Home Office and local authorities. Responsibilities include the supply of information from the Police National Computer, managing the Police National Network and the introduction of the National Automated Fingerprint Identification System. PITO also oversees the business and policy aspects of NSPIS.

TCC Traffic Control Centre.

The traffic control centre to be established, operated and maintained by TiS under the TCC Agreement.

TCC Co Traffic Information Services (TiS) Limited.

A company owned by Serco which will operate the TCC utilising TiS personnel in partnership with the HA and under policies set by the HA.

TiS

The consortium comprising TCC Co, Serco Limited and Serco Limited's sub-contractors.

VMS Variable Message Sign

or signs.

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Annexes