10 March 2010 – VEGA Consulting Services Ltd (VEGA), a Finmeccanica company, has won contracts from the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) and National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) to help improve the organisations’ business resilience.

VEGA, one of Europe’s leading Security & Resilience consultancies, will provide independent expert advice to ensure the Business Continuity Management Systems (BCMS) of both organisations conform to best practice continuity standards, including those of the British Standards Institute (BSi). Both contracts are being delivered by VEGA’s business resilience team which brings a depth of experience from across the public and private sectors.

The UK MOD and NPIA both have critical roles underpinning the UK’s National Security Strategy and contingency planning. Their ability to minimise the risk to their own continuity of service therefore, has a significant impact on the UK’s response to potential security threats.

Under the first contract, VEGA is supporting the UK MOD’s secure Public Key Infrastructure service, which is responsible for managing the encryption keys required for ensuring secure communications across the UK MOD. The work is being carried out through the Defence Equipment & Support Information Systems and Services organisation. VEGA will be helping improve the BCMS to ensure compliance with UK MOD’s standard on Business Continuity Management JSP 503, as well as to satisfy tScheme and ISO 27001 requirements.

The NPIA contract will involve VEGA providing consultancy support and guidance to enhance the current Business Continuity Planning and Disaster Recovery Planning of the Police National Computer Service. VEGA will help formalise the structure of their plans to ensure that the BCMS fully meets the British Standard for BCM, BS25999.

VEGA Managing Director, Paul MacGregor, said: “At VEGA we are absolutely focussed on developing services that benefit those organisations with a major role in the national security of the UK. I am therefore delighted that organisations such as the UK MOD and NPIA have commissioned VEGA to help improve the resilience of their operations.”