Axed ... the website police need to prevent another 7/7

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The Police Portal, designed to allow officers to send emergency information to millions of people in seconds, has been axed amid a legal dispute with the company developing a new version of it.

The website - addressed www.police.uk - was successfully used after the London attacks to enable people to send police photographs and video captured on mobile phones in the aftermath of the bombs.

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A website the emergency services used in the wake of the London bombings has been axed

It also enabled the public to report non-urgent incidents to the police without clogging up switchboards.

Last year the service provided details of more than 3,000 alleged offences - including so-called "hate crimes" involving race, religion or sexual orientation.

Senior anti-terrorist planners told a post-July 7 inquiry that a more sophisticated system was needed and the Government paid QinetiQ, the former MoD-run defence contractor, £8.5million to develop it.

But the National Police Improvement Agency, which is responsible for the website, was not happy with progress and has closed it down completely.

A spokesman said: "The system that was in development was not fit for live use due to a range of serious defects and delays." The new site had failed rigorous "user acceptance testing".

QinetiQ has taken legal action against the NPIA. Sources close to the firm said there was nothing wrong with the website which was "ready to go live".

The scrapping of the system adds another scheme to the Home Office's list of cancelled and troubled IT-related projects, which includes failures of projects supporting immigration and passport services, the Probation Service and the Criminal Records Bureau.