One of the smaller announcements in the Spring Budget that might have gone under the radar was the Government’s investment in drones for the emergency services.
However, PwC stressed an equal focus should be given to integrating drone data with existing systems.
PwC’s head of drones (yes there really is one), Craig Roberts said: “It is encouraging to see that the government is investing in drones for incident response in the emergency services. The unique perspective offered by drones can assist decision making at critical incidents, increase the speed of deployment, reduce costs, and enhance data collection and quality. However, it is important to note that these benefits will not be fully realised simply by buying drones, training pilots, and putting governance in place. To unleash the power of drones, the government should give equal focus to ensuring that drone captured data is effectively processed, centrally stored, and fully integrated.”
