Forty-Eighth Report - Digital Services at the Border

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 … Read more 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. Show less

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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 … Read more 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. Show less

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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 … Read more 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 Show less

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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 …

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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 …

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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

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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The latest roll-out of Border Crossing started on time at the beginning of December

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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