Border Force using out-of-date technology to decide who can enter UK, report finds

Out-of-date technology is being used to decide who can enter the UK, according to Whitehall’s spending watchdog.

Border Force staff are relying on a 26-year-old system for its passenger watchlist to check whether suspects and persons of interest are trying to enter the country, the National Audit Office (NAO) found.

Another system which analyses data is 16 years old, the report said.

It comes after a Home Office plan to upgrade computer systems was delayed by three years.

The government department “did not deliver improved digital border systems to its planned timetable of March 2019” which has “increased costs by £173 million and means it continues to rely on legacy technology,” the NAO report said.

The NAO also revealed that the rollout of the new system had been pushed back to the end of March 2022.

“The Home Office has made improvements, but it still faces significant risks in delivering and integrating its new systems against a challenging timetable,” it added.

The department set out to upgrade the old computer systems in 2014 because they were becoming difficult to maintain, unfit for work to be carried out in the future and “increasingly expensive”.

However the plan lacked a timetable, clear objectives and a budget, and the amount of work needed to be done was also underestimated by the Home Office, according to the watchdog.

In July last year, the Home Office decided to delay the introduction of the plan by three years, which added hundreds of millions of pounds to the bill for the work.

The estimated net impact of the department’s failure to deliver the programme by the end of March 2019 as originally planned “is an additional cost of £173 million,” the NAO said.

An earlier version of the new programme – called Border Crossing – had problems with most of its pilot trials in December last year, with six out of seven ports using it to check less than 20% of passengers, the NAO said.

The system is set to be rolled out to 56 ports by the middle of June.

Head of the NAO Gareth Davies said: “The Digital Services at the Border programme did not achieve value for money by March 2019, failing to deliver what it intended and leaving Border Force staff to rely on outdated legacy systems.

“Since resetting the programme, there have been improvements and the Home Office has a better understanding of the significant risks and challenges ahead. It now needs to build on this work to ensure that it can deliver the programme at the pace and scale it requires.”

The Home Office said it had accepted the NAO’s recommendations, and a spokesman added: “Since 2019, following the reset of the programme, industry confidence in this programme has increased with a clear focus and delivery plan put in place,” a Home Office spokesman added.

“This programme will transform the way we secure and manage the flow of people and goods across the border. It will deliver adaptable and modern technology to improve security, increase efficiency and provide a better experience for travellers.”

(c) Sky News 2020: Border Force using out-of-date technology to decide who can enter UK, report finds