Home Office criticised over £830m 'failed' borders scheme

Source: BBC News, 03/12/2015

The Home Office has been criticised for failing to complete a project
to boost UK border security - despite spending at least £830 million
on it.


The e-borders scheme was meant to collect and analyse data on everyone
travelling to and from the UK before they arrive at ports and
airports.


But the National Audit Office says checks remain "highly manual and
inefficient", and IT systems outdated.


The Home Office says all UK arrivals are checked against watch
lists.


The e-borders scheme has been dogged by problems since its launch in
2003, and in 2014, the head of the UK Border Force, Sir Charles
Montgomery, told MPs it had been "terminated" in its current
form.


By collecting advanced passenger information (API), such as passport
numbers and nationalities, it was meant to allow officials to "export
the border" by preventing people from embarking on journeys to the UK
where they were considered a threat.


Eight years late
Among the report's key findings:
• £830m was spent on the project between April 2006 and March 2015,
with another £275m likely to be needed by March 2019
• Among those costs was £150m on an out-of-court settlement paid after
the original e-borders contract was cancelled
• The project is not set to be finished until 2019 - eight years
late


• API was only collected from 86% of arrivals in September this year,
despite the target being 100%


• Moreover, API still is not available for most rail and ferry
journeys


• Only 20% of booking data - more comprehensive than API - is being
collected. Again, the target is 100%.


The NAO said a database known as the Warning Index - designed to flag
up known criminals or terrorists - was still being used eight years
after it should have been retired.


While it has been upgraded, it is "still far from good" and suffers an
average of two "high priority incidents a week".


These breakdowns include situations where part of the system is not
available or performing too slowly to function, or where it is
inaccessible at 30% or more control points at a port or airport.



The Home Office insisted contingency arrangements were in place for
when those incidents occurred.


________________________________________
Analysis: Danny Shaw, BBC home affairs correspondent
This is a devastating critique of a project presented by the Home
Office, first under Labour, as the key to securing Britain's borders.
In fact, as the report reveals, the programme has been torpedoed by
its ambition.


Collecting and assessing advance passenger information on more than
200 million journeys a year was always going to be hard task -
involving co-ordinating the supply of data from 600 air, ferry and
rail carriers and 30 government agencies.


Add in creaking computer systems, a high turnover of key staff and a
draining legal dispute with the private contractor, and it's clear
that ministers and officials over-reached themselves.


There's little doubt more advance passenger information is available
now than in 2003, when the scheme was first developed, but the costs
have risen hugely with some border checks still being conducted using
scraps of paper.


________________________________________
The Warning Index operates alongside another system called semaphore,
but the NAO said the failure to integrate them meant staff still had
to check passports manually and consult printed A4 sheets when probing
suspicious vehicle registrations.


Amyas Morse, head of the NAO, said e-borders had not "delivered value
for money".


"Some valuable capabilities have been added to our border defences
during the life of this project, though their efficiency is impaired
by a failure to replace old IT systems," he added.


Keith Vaz, chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, described
the report as a "devastating indictment" of the e-borders
project.


"With the terrorism threat level currently at severe, a failure to
properly cover millions of people entering the country without having
passenger information in advance gives a green light to people who
wish to come to the UK for illegal or dangerous activity," he
said.


________________________________________
What are e-borders?
• Launched in 2003, the scheme was originally meant to collect details
from passenger lists of all people entering and leaving the UK


• The US firm handed the £750m contract, Raytheon, was fired by the
coalition in 2010


• The e-borders contract was split in two with IBM and Serco given the
job of getting a system in place at nine airports before the 2012
London Olympics


• In 2014, the director general of the UK Border Force said "full
e-borders capability", as originally envisaged, would not be achieved,
but the checks and screening would be incorporated into a new
programme.


________________________________________
Immigration Minister James Brokenshire said every passenger arriving
in the UK was checked against a range of watch lists.


"The e-borders programme was set up under the Labour government and
when that contract ended in 2010, our immediate priority was to invest
in stabilising the crucial but old-fashioned systems, to tackle the
fast-evolving terrorist, criminal and illegal immigration threats
faced by the UK.


"The Border Systems Portfolio, in conjunction with a range of
programmes across security and law enforcement, is working effectively
to keep our citizens safe and our country secure."