E-borders inquiry
Closed
What the inquiry looked at
“In 2003 UK border controls relied primarily on systems and procedures that operated at the border itself. In the early 2000s there was a growing realisation in the UK and elsewhere of the need to do more checks before people arrived in the country, and ideally before they left their point of origin. It was against this background that the Home Office set up its e-borders programme. After four years of planning, piloting and procurement, in November 2007 the Home Office entered a contract with Raytheon Systems Limited, a contract which it terminated in July 2010 claiming failure to deliver against milestones. Between 2003 and 2015, the Home Office spent at least £830 million on the e-borders programme and its successors, including over £340 million between 2006–07 and 2010-11 on the e-borders programme, a further £150 million on the settlement with Raytheon and £35 million on legal costs, and £303 million on successor programmes. Although these have delivered some valuable capabilities, with advanced passenger data now available on an estimated 86% of those travelling to the UK compared with zero in 2003.This is still considerably short of the target in the e-borders business case of 95% by December 2010 and 100% by March 2014.”
The committee's words, from the inquiry page on parliament.uk ↗.
What it found
On current projections the Home Office’s (the Department’s) e-Borders programme and its successors will cost over a billion pounds, be delivered 8 years late and not provide the benefits expected for transport carriers and passengers. A major reason for this delay was the termination by the Department in 2010 of its e-Borders contract with Raytheon. This had required Raytheon to deliver its own solution to meet the Department’s objectives to a fixed price and timescale which turned out to be unrealistic as government had detailed and evolving requirements, and wanted high assurance that the proposed solution would work. The Department was emphatic that our borders are secure. However, the Department needs to accept that its assertion that it checks 100% of passports is both imprecise and unrealistic due to the complexity of our border. It is now five years since the e-Borders contract was cancelled yet the capabilities delivered so far still fall short of what was originally envisaged. Since 2010 the Major Projects Authority has issued seven warnings about these programmes. The Department’s complacency about progress to date increases our concerns about whether the programme will be completed by 2019 as the Department now promises, and whether tangible benefits for border security, transport carriers and passengers will result.
What the government said
No government response is linked to this report.
How the inquiry ran
Each dot is a dated item listed on this page, from the inquiry's opening on 24 November 2015 to 8 September 2016.
- Oral evidence 16 Dec 2015
- Report 4 Mar 2016
- Correspondence 8 Sep 2016
What it recommended
The committee's recommendations are not listed here yet. Read them in 27th Report - e-Borders and successor programmes ↗ on parliament.uk.
Evidence
Oral evidence sessions 1
- 16 Dec 2015No witnesses recordedparliament.uk ↗