Ongoing negotiations over the Firelink contract for a secure national radio system for fire and rescue services could delay the implementation of the system.

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, which is responsible for the deal, says that there are no delays in the procurement and that the service will be up and running across the country by 2008, as planned.

But insiders say negotiations are focusing on the implementation date because the timetable for signing the deal has already slipped by almost a year.

The Firelink contract was originally due to be signed in July 2004, then November, then March 2005, and now the end of May 2005. But the implementation date remains the same.

'Debates are ongoing about the timings on the contract,' an insider close to the procurement told Computing. 'The existing contract plan is for a rollout programme lasting two years from the award of the deal, but if the contract is now not going to be signed until the end of May, that needs to be renegotiated.'

One senior source warns that not allowing the implementation to be delayed could cause serious problems.

Another source said: 'Any project plan that sacrifices early milestones and keeps the end ones should be a cause of some scepticism. The contract award date is nearly a year late, but if you went back a year you would see the same rollout date - the final milestone has not changed.'