Recommendations & Conclusions
22 items
2
Recommendation
Forty-Eighth Report - Digital Services …
Accepted
The Department has failed to identify, acknowledge and be transparent about problems within the Digital Services at the Border programme. Optimism bias about delivery and a failure to be open and transparent about delays left the Department unable to act on accurate information and exposed it to increased costs due …
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The Department has failed to identify, acknowledge and be transparent about problems within the Digital Services at the Border programme. Optimism bias about delivery and a failure to be open and transparent about delays left the Department unable to act on accurate information and exposed it to increased costs due to delays in identifying the need to reset the programme. In 2016 the Department made commitments to Parliament that the Digital Services at the Border programme was on track to deliver in 2017. Only in 2019 did the Department accept that it needed to reduce and narrow the scope of the programme to make it more deliverable. The Department put delays and subsequent reduction in scope of the Digital Services at the Border programme down to EU Exit and changes to classification of security data, but it had failed to make any contingency plans for the UK leaving the EU and the changes to classification were in place before the programme started. Recommendation: The Department should report back to the Committee on: • its mechanisms for oversight and assurance of delivery and how it knows whether they are working; • any costs incurred from deviating from the Department’s delivery plans.
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Government response AI summary
The government agreed and detailed its robust assurance oversight processes, including independent reviews by the IPA and GIAA, monthly programme boards, and a dedicated assurance lead. It also committed to report back on the July 2021 IPA review and confirmed no additional costs from delivery …
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HM Treasury
3
Recommendation
Forty-Eighth Report - Digital Services …
Accepted
The Department’s failure to deliver the Digital Services at the Border programme by March 2019 was caused by a lack of effective leadership, management and oversight. The Department accepts that the Digital Services at the Border programme did not achieve value for money up to 2019, with none of the …
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The Department’s failure to deliver the Digital Services at the Border programme by March 2019 was caused by a lack of effective leadership, management and oversight. The Department accepts that the Digital Services at the Border programme did not achieve value for money up to 2019, with none of the three 6 Digital Services at the Border systems being delivered as planned. It failed to respond to or address risks that were flagged to the programme board. There have been three Accounting Officers and four Senior Responsible Owners (SROs) since the Digital Services at the Border programme began. The Department now expects the Digital Services at the Border programme SRO to focus full-time on seeing the programme through to delivery. The Department claims to have streamlined its oversight and reporting and says that in future it will hold its programme leaders more closely to account for programme delivery. Recommendation: The Department should set out specifically what it is doing differently in its approach to the DSAB programme to ensure that it is delivered on time to its revised end March 2022 timetable.
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Government response AI summary
The government agrees with the recommendation and states it has been implemented. It details a reset in 2019 which led to changes including full-time SROs for major programs, new governance and risk processes, manageable scope, separate Programme and Technical Delivery directors, agile delivery methodologies, and …
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HM Treasury
4
Recommendation
Forty-Eighth Report - Digital Services …
Accepted
The Department has struggled to deliver the core technical components of the Digital Services at the Border programme. The Department has faced repeated problems with the technical aspects of delivery which means it has continued to depend on existing suppliers and extending contracts, with further cost implications. It struggled for …
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The Department has struggled to deliver the core technical components of the Digital Services at the Border programme. The Department has faced repeated problems with the technical aspects of delivery which means it has continued to depend on existing suppliers and extending contracts, with further cost implications. It struggled for several years to find a workable technical solution for storing secret data following the change of data security classification. The Department was also slow to respond to the consequences of EU exit and changes to intelligence requirements. The Department had to suspend its Border Crossing pilot system in March 2020 because it was not stable enough and was only available to frontline staff included in the pilot for 54% of the days it was in operation. The Department has struggled to retain people with the technical skills it requires but tells us it now has a balance between technical and frontline skills with relevant people better able to manage different aspects of the programme. Recommendation: The Department should set out what it has done to resolve the problems it has had with the technical components of the programme and what it will do if these components are not working as intended to the timescales it has planned.
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Government response AI summary
The government agrees and states the recommendation is implemented, detailing specific actions taken to resolve technical problems. These include implementing agile methodologies, migrating the Border Crossing product to a robust platform, refactoring the "secret data" solution, deploying standard logging and monitoring, adopting Site Reliability Engineering, …
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HM Treasury
5
Conclusion
Forty-Eighth Report - Digital Services …
Accepted
We see a clear risk that the Department will not be able to deliver the programme by the end of March 2022. The Department started its latest rollout of the Border Crossing system on time, but it has so far reached only 300 frontline users at 7 locations out of …
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We see a clear risk that the Department will not be able to deliver the programme by the end of March 2022. The Department started its latest rollout of the Border Crossing system on time, but it has so far reached only 300 frontline users at 7 locations out of an intended 7,000 at 56 locations by June 2021. It still has no proof that systems can cope with passenger volumes that existed prior to COVID-19, let alone the 6% annual growth in the volume of passengers it is allowing for above the 140 million people that arrived in the UK annually prior to COVID-19. The Department also plans to include new mobile technology so that Border Force staff covering small ports and airports not included in the Border Crossing rollout will still benefit from the delivery of the Digital Services at the Border programme. Despite recent modest improvements to its risk ratings and achievement against milestones, the Department’s own rating of scope risk was Red as recently as August
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Government response AI summary
The government agreed and stated the recommendation is implemented, confirming a detailed programme delivery plan with exact milestones has been baselined at the DSAB board, encompassing all main elements of delivery through to March 2022.
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HM Treasury
6
Recommendation
Forty-Eighth Report - Digital Services …
Accepted
The Department’s ambitions for the border and its delivery of practical improvements for users depend upon it coordinating the implementation of the Digital Services at the Border programme with the delivery of several related projects. The Department’s aim to provide UK Border Force staff with better information to make decisions …
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The Department’s ambitions for the border and its delivery of practical improvements for users depend upon it coordinating the implementation of the Digital Services at the Border programme with the delivery of several related projects. The Department’s aim to provide UK Border Force staff with better information to make decisions about people crossing the border and to track goods entering and exiting the UK depends on it delivering all elements of the new systems on time. It is also reliant on the delivery of other interdependent projects such as e-gates and port infrastructure upgrades to meet this aim. The Department has significant interdependencies to manage with the Data Futures programme to realise the original Digital Services at the Border programme’s objective of better tracking goods entering and exiting the UK. Recommendation: The Department should set out progress against planned milestones for related programmes, any impacts on frontline Border Force staff and people using border services, and what it is doing to mitigate these impacts. 8 Digital Services at the Border 1 Multiple failures to deliver a digital border
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Government response AI summary
The government agreed and stated the recommendation is implemented, detailing how progress against planned milestones for related programmes is tracked, impacts mitigated, and updates provided to a transformation board, noting all related programmes are progressing as planned.
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HM Treasury
1
Conclusion
Forty-Eighth Report - Digital Services …
Not Addressed
Based on a report by the Comptroller & Auditor General we took evidence from the Home Office (the Department), including from Border Force, on progress with the Digital Services at the Border (DSAB) programme.1
Government response AI summary
The government provided its own introductory overview of the Digital Services at the Border programme, rather than engaging with the committee's initial descriptive statement about taking evidence.
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HM Treasury
7
Conclusion
Forty-Eighth Report - Digital Services …
Not Addressed
In a May 2016 Treasury Minute response to this Committee, the Department provided Parliament with assurance over several aspects of DSAB. It committed to delivering Advanced Freight Targeting Capability in 2017 and to rolling out Border Crossing nationally by 2017. It did not meet these commitments and had still not …
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In a May 2016 Treasury Minute response to this Committee, the Department provided Parliament with assurance over several aspects of DSAB. It committed to delivering Advanced Freight Targeting Capability in 2017 and to rolling out Border Crossing nationally by 2017. It did not meet these commitments and had still not delivered these systems when the programme was eventually reset in 2019.13
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Government response AI summary
The government stated it had nothing further to add to previous evidence, providing no new information or commitments regarding its past failures to deliver Advanced Freight Targeting Capability and Border Crossing systems by 2017.
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HM Treasury
8
Conclusion
Forty-Eighth Report - Digital Services …
Not Addressed
The Department noted that this was part of a wider pattern whereby those involved with the programme wanted to present a positive direction for the programme to senior management at a time when the programme was struggling in 2017 and 2018.14 This resulted in a failure to be open and …
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The Department noted that this was part of a wider pattern whereby those involved with the programme wanted to present a positive direction for the programme to senior management at a time when the programme was struggling in 2017 and 2018.14 This resulted in a failure to be open and transparent about delays.15 As a result, information about the progress of the programme was not passed up the line as required. This led to the Department not deciding to reset the programme until 2019, which in turn has resulted in additional costs.16
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Government response AI summary
The government declined to add anything further to its previous evidence, thus not addressing the committee's conclusion regarding failures in transparency and communication about program delays.
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HM Treasury
9
Conclusion
Forty-Eighth Report - Digital Services …
Not Addressed
The Department suggested that external factors had hindered the programme, noting that new requirements emerged following the EU Exit referendum results in 7 Q 45; C&AG’s report Progress delivering the Emergency Services Network, Session 2017–19, HC 2140, 10 May 2019, Para 5 8 Q 44 9 Q 66 10 Q …
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The Department suggested that external factors had hindered the programme, noting that new requirements emerged following the EU Exit referendum results in 7 Q 45; C&AG’s report Progress delivering the Emergency Services Network, Session 2017–19, HC 2140, 10 May 2019, Para 5 8 Q 44 9 Q 66 10 Q 49 11 Q 37 12 Qq 66, 67 13 Qq 37, 38; HM Treasury, Treasury Minutes – Government responses on the Twenty–Seventh to the Thirty–Third reports from the Committee of Public Accounts Session 2015–16, Cm 9270, May 2016 14 Q 81 15 Q 67 16 Q 81 10 Digital Services at the Border
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Government response AI summary
The government stated it had nothing further to add to previous evidence, providing no new information or commitments regarding the external factors that hindered the Digital Services at the Border programme.
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HM Treasury
10
Conclusion
Forty-Eighth Report - Digital Services …
Not Addressed
The Department acknowledged that by the time of its reset, the programme had not delivered the value for money that had originally been intended. The Department had delivered none of the three systems that it had intended to deliver on time.19 The programme removed two of these systems from the …
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The Department acknowledged that by the time of its reset, the programme had not delivered the value for money that had originally been intended. The Department had delivered none of the three systems that it had intended to deliver on time.19 The programme removed two of these systems from the scope in the reset, moving their capability to other programmes within the Department which will deliver later than the Digital Services at the Border Programme.20
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Government response AI summary
The government's response addresses mechanisms for oversight and assurance of delivery and costs incurred from deviations, which is a different recommendation, and does not directly engage with the committee's conclusion about the past failure to deliver value for money.
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HM Treasury
11
Conclusion
Forty-Eighth Report - Digital Services …
Accepted
Problems with the programme were compounded by instability among its senior leadership. The programme had four different Senior Responsible Owners (SRO) between 2014 and 2020, with the current SRO being the longest serving after just over 2 years in post.21 The Department has also had three Permanent Secretaries during the …
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Problems with the programme were compounded by instability among its senior leadership. The programme had four different Senior Responsible Owners (SRO) between 2014 and 2020, with the current SRO being the longest serving after just over 2 years in post.21 The Department has also had three Permanent Secretaries during the life of the programme. The Department has acknowledged that previous SROs had other roles outside the programme, reducing their time and focus on the programme. The Department stated that it has changed this situation so that being the SRO on programmes of this size is a full-time role and has committed to seeking greater continuity in the position, with the expectation that the current SRO should stay in post until programme delivery.22
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Government response AI summary
The government explicitly states it agrees with PAC recommendation 3 (regarding leadership and oversight) and has implemented changes. These include assigning SROs full-time responsibility for a major program, implementing new governance with robust risk and change processes, strengthening stakeholder engagement, and adopting incremental, product-based technical …
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HM Treasury
12
Conclusion
Forty-Eighth Report - Digital Services …
Accepted
The Department failed to act on risks that were being flagged. The Committee noted that ongoing issues existed but that the Department did not address them, in part because information was not being communicated effectively by the programme team to the wider Department.23 Since the programme reset the Department claims …
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The Department failed to act on risks that were being flagged. The Committee noted that ongoing issues existed but that the Department did not address them, in part because information was not being communicated effectively by the programme team to the wider Department.23 Since the programme reset the Department claims to have streamlined its oversight of the programme, including closer scrutiny by its digital and data programme staff and with monthly reports from the SRO to the Border Force board.24 Difficulties in delivering technical aspects
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Government response AI summary
The government detailed its robust assurance oversight processes, including independent reviews by the IPA and GIAA, monthly programme boards, and a dedicated assurance lead. This demonstrates the streamlined oversight the committee noted the department claimed to have implemented.
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HM Treasury
13
Conclusion
Forty-Eighth Report - Digital Services …
Accepted
The Department has faced repeated technical difficulties in delivering the programme. These difficulties have caused delays which in turn have forced the Department to extend existing contracts for legacy systems, at a cost of £145 million between 2019 and 2022.25 This also meant that frontline Border Force staff needed to …
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The Department has faced repeated technical difficulties in delivering the programme. These difficulties have caused delays which in turn have forced the Department to extend existing contracts for legacy systems, at a cost of £145 million between 2019 and 2022.25 This also meant that frontline Border Force staff needed to continue using existing systems in their work and delayed the delivery of benefits to them.26
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Government response AI summary
The government states it has agreed with PAC recommendation 2 (regarding oversight and transparency), independently reviewed and reset the program in 2019, and has since delivered all key milestones on time and within budget. It details robust assurance processes, including independent reviews, a dedicated lead, …
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HM Treasury
14
Conclusion
Forty-Eighth Report - Digital Services …
Not Addressed
Some of the technical difficulties involved responding to the external factors that hindered the programme. For example, the Department created the Future Border and Immigration System (FBIS) programme in response to EU Exit which developed six new interfaces with which the DSAB systems needed to connect. In addition, the Department …
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Some of the technical difficulties involved responding to the external factors that hindered the programme. For example, the Department created the Future Border and Immigration System (FBIS) programme in response to EU Exit which developed six new interfaces with which the DSAB systems needed to connect. In addition, the Department 19 Qq 36, 90 20 Qq 36, 104–105 21 Qq 65, 66 22 Qq 66, 84 23 Q 81 24 Q 70 25 Q 90 26 Q 31 12 Digital Services at the Border explained that it had attempted to collaborate with other departments on storing secret data before eventually accepting the need to build its own data centre.27 These were the main external factors behind the programmes eventual reset.
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Government response AI summary
The government stated it had nothing further to add to previous evidence, providing no new information or commitments regarding the technical difficulties and external factors that led to the programme's eventual reset.
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HM Treasury
15
Conclusion
Forty-Eighth Report - Digital Services …
Accepted
The programme suspended an attempted roll-out of the Border Crossing system in March 2020.28 The system had difficulty operating reliably at scale, with stability problems causing it to be available for only 54% of the days that it was supposed to be available, and roll-out limitations meaning that it was …
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The programme suspended an attempted roll-out of the Border Crossing system in March 2020.28 The system had difficulty operating reliably at scale, with stability problems causing it to be available for only 54% of the days that it was supposed to be available, and roll-out limitations meaning that it was only available to 783 users out of a required 7,000.29 The programme started the latest roll-out of Border Crossing at the beginning of December after attempting to fix these difficulties. The latest roll-out has so far been available 98% of the time. While this is an improvement on previous performance, the Department has set a requirement of 99.93% to be met by April 2021.30
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Government response AI summary
The government detailed specific technical actions taken to resolve problems with the Border Crossing system's components, including migration to a robust platform, refactoring for scalability, improved logging, and performance testing, which aim to enhance reliability and availability towards the stated target.
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HM Treasury
16
Conclusion
Forty-Eighth Report - Digital Services …
Not Addressed
The Department acknowledged that it has faced strong competition for people with the scarce technical skills required to deliver the programme, including from other government departments. The Department has now designed framework contracts with outside suppliers so that it is the responsibility of the suppliers to provide the right people …
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The Department acknowledged that it has faced strong competition for people with the scarce technical skills required to deliver the programme, including from other government departments. The Department has now designed framework contracts with outside suppliers so that it is the responsibility of the suppliers to provide the right people with the right skills to support the programme.31 To support its skills base the programme has building the working relationship between the Department’s Digital, Data and Technology team and Border Force. The Department stated that this has improved the balance between the technical experts who understand the necessary system requirements and frontline staff who understand the user perspective. The Department is also attempting to improve civil service skills for the long-term.32 27 Qq 39, 40 28 Q 89 29 Q 59; C&AG’s Report, Digital Services at the Border Figure 12 30 Q 59; C&AG’s Report, Digital Services at the Border para 3.8 31 Q 66 32 Qq 66, 74 Digital Services at the Border 13 3 Delivering the reset programme The risk of late delivery
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Government response AI summary
The government's response details technical improvements to the Border Crossing system, which does not address the committee's conclusion regarding the Department's challenges with scarce technical skills and its strategies for addressing resourcing issues.
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HM Treasury
17
Conclusion
Forty-Eighth Report - Digital Services …
Not Addressed
The latest roll-out of Border Crossing started on time at the beginning of December
Government response AI summary
The government's response did not address the committee's observation that the Border Crossing roll-out started on time, instead providing information about setting out programme milestones.
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HM Treasury
18
Conclusion
Forty-Eighth Report - Digital Services …
Not Addressed
The Department has outlined plans to ensure Border Crossing systems are available at crossing points other than the 56 major entry points which will have permanent access to the system. The Department stated that this will involve a mobile capability which will allow Border Force officers to access the Border …
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The Department has outlined plans to ensure Border Crossing systems are available at crossing points other than the 56 major entry points which will have permanent access to the system. The Department stated that this will involve a mobile capability which will allow Border Force officers to access the Border Crossing system temporarily at other entry points when they determine by a risk-based assessment that this is necessary.36 The Department has yet to fully set out its approach to delivering this mobile capability.
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Government response AI summary
The government stated it had nothing further to add to previous evidence, providing no new information or commitments regarding the mobile capability for Border Crossing systems at non-major entry points.
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HM Treasury
19
Conclusion
Forty-Eighth Report - Digital Services …
Accepted
There has been some improvement in the risk ratings applied to the programme. The most recent IPA review rated it as amber, having previously been amber-red following the reset. This was in response to improved governance and leadership in line with recommendations from the IPA and from an internal Department …
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There has been some improvement in the risk ratings applied to the programme. The most recent IPA review rated it as amber, having previously been amber-red following the reset. This was in response to improved governance and leadership in line with recommendations from the IPA and from an internal Department review.37 Despite these modest improvements the programme still rated its own scope risk as red as recently as August 2020 after one aspect of programme delivery slipped on its timeline, although it has since returned to amber.38 Coordination with related projects
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Government response AI summary
The government described specific actions taken to resolve technical problems, such as implementing agile methodologies, migrating Border Crossing to a robust platform, and enhancing monitoring. These actions contribute to improved governance and address underlying issues mentioned in the conclusion about risk ratings.
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HM Treasury
20
Conclusion
Forty-Eighth Report - Digital Services …
Not Addressed
For the Department to deliver its planned improvements to border security, it is dependent on the quality of the data input into its information systems. This will include new system inputs from European Union countries after Schengen Information System II (SIS II) uploads and records were removed from UK systems …
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For the Department to deliver its planned improvements to border security, it is dependent on the quality of the data input into its information systems. This will include new system inputs from European Union countries after Schengen Information System II (SIS II) uploads and records were removed from UK systems following the end of the transition period.39 These inputs will be replaced by uploads and records from Interpol. With either SIS II or Interpol, the UK is dependent on the speed with which other countries upload information onto these systems.40
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Government response AI summary
The government's response explicitly addresses a different recommendation (regarding progress against milestones for related programmes and their impacts) and does not engage with the committee's conclusion on the UK's dependency on data quality and upload speed from other countries.
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HM Treasury
21
Conclusion
Forty-Eighth Report - Digital Services …
Accepted
The Department’s ambitions for the border as a whole and delivery of practical improvements for users require timely delivery of all elements of the new DSAB systems, 33 Qq 58, 59, 85 34 Qq 85,88, 106 35 Q 88 36 Qq 62, 64 37 Q 54 38 Q 56 39 …
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The Department’s ambitions for the border as a whole and delivery of practical improvements for users require timely delivery of all elements of the new DSAB systems, 33 Qq 58, 59, 85 34 Qq 85,88, 106 35 Q 88 36 Qq 62, 64 37 Q 54 38 Q 56 39 Q 25 40 Qq 24, 25 14 Digital Services at the Border as well as effective interdependencies with systems from other programmes.41 The Department noted the importance of re-platforming Semaphore to allow that system to continue operating. Some of the technology originally developed for DSAB is also being taken forward by the Data Futures programme. The Department expects the key part of the Data Futures programme associated with the original DSAB scope to deliver in 2022–23.42 The Department also needs to integrate the Border Crossing system with e-gates, in order to check passengers using those gates against the new system, as well as upgrade infrastructure including network connections at ports to enable these systems to operate effectively.43
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Government response AI summary
The government described its established system for managing and tracking dependencies between related programs, mitigating impacts, and providing updates to the BICS Transformation board, aligning with the committee's observation on the importance of coordination.
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HM Treasury
22
Conclusion
Forty-Eighth Report - Digital Services …
Accepted
The Department stated that, if the programme is not delivered on time, its contingency is to extend existing contracts with Warnings Index and Semaphore, including using extension clauses in the existing contracts. The Department is seeking to avoid this for two reasons. Firstly, running those existing systems instead of delivering …
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The Department stated that, if the programme is not delivered on time, its contingency is to extend existing contracts with Warnings Index and Semaphore, including using extension clauses in the existing contracts. The Department is seeking to avoid this for two reasons. Firstly, running those existing systems instead of delivering the programme would cost £130 million over 10 years and necessitate reliance on systems that would be very difficult to sustain during that period as the Warnings Index would be over 35 years old by the end of it.44 Secondly, continuing to use the existing systems delays the benefits of the newer systems, which are more user-friendly for staff operating at the border. For example, Border Crossing shows the age of passengers passing through rather than just their date of birth, removing the need for border staff to calculate the age themselves.45 41 Q 111 42 Qq 103, 105, 106 43 Q 92; C&AG’s Report, Digital Services at the Border Para 3.11 44 Qq 100–102 45 Q 31 Digital Services at the Border 15
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Government response AI summary
The government detailed its instituted risk management approach, including a Red Team analysis and updated contingencies with specific actions like adding time and revising strategy, addressing the committee's observation on contingency plans.
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HM Treasury