PA subsidiary 7Safe provides eDiscovery services to public sector

7Safe, the technical-testing & assurance, digital investigations, and cyber skills training subsidiary of UK-headquartered PA Consulting Group, has announced an agreement with the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) to supply eDiscovery services to the UK public sector. The agreement sees PA and 7Safe named as suppliers on CCS’s e-Disclosure Services framework.

The CCS supports the public sector to achieve maximum commercial value when procuring common goods and services. The framework of contracting private sector personnel to handle confidential material is claimed to help under-resourced public bodies cut costs when managing sensitive data and documents. In the wake of the global WannaCry cyber-hack, the UK government has come under increasing pressure to invest in the public sector’s legacy data infrastructure.

7Safe provides cyber security and digital investigation advice, education and technical services to technology-enabled organisations and helps them develop and maintain their cyber security and information investigation capabilities. The firm will aim to provide CCS with cost-efficient and timely e-Discovery and e-Disclosure expertise where needed, while utilising in-house expertise civil litigation and criminal cases to ensure discretion and effective safeguarding. PA’s project managers will meanwhile work to complement 7Safe’s e-Disclosure technical services, as an extension of the duo’s pre-existing relationship with the CCS, established through existing government consultancy frameworks. The UK government was reported by the National Audit Office to have spent between £400 and £600 million since 2013.

With European General Data Protection Regulation taking effect in May 2018, companies are increasingly looking for assurances that security-classified documents and any personally-identifiable information held in public sector systems is safe and secure, while also managing costs effectively. The agreement reached in July between the CSS, PA and 7Safe, comes at a time when electronic data experts along with the latest security technologies are increasingly in demand, to ensure companies have access to the latest thinking and tools. The growing amount of outsourcing is in line with a prediction made by PA themselves in 2015 when they forecasted that the trend would be largely motivated by cost reduction (59%) and access to resources (55%).

Commenting on the agreement, Ken Allan, a digital expert at both the consulting firm and 7Safe said, “An important part of our mission at PA Consulting Group is to transform and improve public services. We work with the full spectrum of government and the public sector, from central departments through to universities and local service providers. To do this, we have always employed the latest technology and highly skilled people to achieve value for money for our clients.”