The Scottish Wide Area Network (SWAN) is the secure

network Network, networking and networked may refer to: Science and technology * Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects * Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks Mathematics ...

for

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

public service A public service or service of general (economic) interest is any service intended to address the needs of aggregate members of a community, whether provided directly by a public sector agency, via public financing available to private busin ...

s. More than 6,000 sites are connected by the network. After the tendering process concluded in March 2013, one of the parties launched a legal challenge, which was dropped in February 2014.

History

NHS Scotland NHS Scotland, sometimes styled NHSScotland, is the publicly–funded healthcare system in Scotland and one of the four systems that make up the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. It operates 14 territorial NHS boards across Scotland ...

previously used the N3 national communications network supplied by

British Telecom BT Group plc (formerly British Telecom) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is the largest provider of fixed-li ...

(BT). The procurement process for a new network began in October 2012. On 21 March 2013, three bidders were announced as having been shortlisted: BT, a partnership of

Cable & Wireless Worldwide Cable & Wireless Worldwide PLC (informally Cable & Wireless) was a British multinational telecommunications services company headquartered in Bracknell, United Kingdom. It was formed in 2010 by the split of Cable & Wireless plc into two ...

with Virgin Media Business, and a partnership of Capita with Updata Infrastructure. After a preferred bidder was selected, BT served

NHS National Services Scotland NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) is a public body and national health board of NHS Scotland. Accountable to the Scottish Government, NSS works at the heart of Scotland’s health service, providing national strategic support services and e ...

(NSS) with a summons, seeking a re-run of the tendering process. In January 2014 the case was heard at the

Court of Session The Court of Session is the highest national court of Scotland in relation to Civil law (common law), civil cases. The court was established in 1532 to take on the judicial functions of the royal council. Its jurisdiction overlapped with othe ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

. The court found in favour of NSS, and the following month BT decided not to appeal the decision. NSS announced the award of the contract to Capita-Updata, who had been their preferred bidder. In November 2014 BT and NSS released a statement to indicate the matter was settled. The first phase of the network was to involve the NHS and six

local authorities Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of a higher-level political or administrative unit, such a ...

. By October 2015 there were 3,200 sites connected to the network. By February 2016, the rollout was 11 months behind schedule. In March 2016, the contract was worth an estimated value of up to £325million over a nine-year period. In 2017,

CityFibre CityFibre is an independent British telecommunications network provider, providing gigabit-capable FTTP broadband across the UK. They are the third-largest network provider in the UK, after Openreach and Virgin Media. It is considered one of the ...

were also involved in the connecting sites. In 2020 Capita secured several contract renewals. In 2023, BT became the sole provider of the network, after an agreement was reached to cover a six-year period. SWAN connects more than 6,000 sites across Scotland, including every hospital and ambulance station, also GP surgeries, community pharmacies, local councils premises and schools.

References

External links

* {{Official website Wide area networks NHS Scotland