12. Although there was widespread support for a new radio system, the cost of Airwave was thought by many police authorities to be prohibitive. In July 2000, the Government announced the allocation of £500 million to pay for the first three years of the contract.10
13. The Home Office told us that, after the decision was taken in 1993 to procure a national system, it had spent some time trying to create a co-operative basis on which the project could proceed. The specification for the system had been drawn up following a major consultation with police authorities. The preferred technology was cutting edge and some police authorities had voiced misgivings as to whether it would work. In the Home Office's view, if police authorities had been required to use their own budgets to fund Airwave, they would have preferred a system with less risk and less functionality. It was therefore possible that the sum of police authorities' local priorities would not have added up to a coherent and satisfactory total picture.11
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10 C&AG's Report, paras 1.21-1.22
11 Qq 14, 22, 190, 194, 196, 198