Digital services at the border
Public Accounts Committee
Closed
Inquiry
The Home Office (HO) has been trying to upgrade or replace legacy IT systems and improve information at UK borders through digital transformation programmes the launch of its e-borders programme in 2003. But in 2010, HO cancelled its contract to deliver a single e-borders system, citing failure to achieve milestones. …
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4
Recommendations
18
Conclusions
1
Report
1
Oral session
4
Letters
1
Event
Activity timeline 7 events
21 Sep
2021
2021
31 Aug
2021
2021
10 Jun
2021
2021
16 Apr
2021
2021
12 Mar
2021
2021
Report published
23 Feb
2021
2021
1 Feb
2021
2021
Oral evidence
Oral evidence sessions 1 session
1 Feb 2021
View on parliament.uk
Digital services at the border
John Gillan · Home Office
Matthew Rycroft CBE · Home Office
Paul Lincoln · Home Office
Reports 1 report · click to expand
| Title | HC No. | Published | Items | Response |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forty-Eighth Report - Digital Services at the Border | HC 936 | 12 Mar 2021 | 22 | Responded |
Recommendations & Conclusions
12 results
2
Recommendation
Accepted
Forty-Eighth Report - Digital Serv…
The Department has failed to identify, acknowledge and be transparent about problems within the Digital...
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 …
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Government Response
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 plan deviations since 2019.
HM Treasury
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3
Recommendation
Accepted
Forty-Eighth Report - Digital Serv…
The Department’s failure to deliver the Digital Services at the Border programme by March 2019...
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 …
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Government Response
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 a product-based approach to ensure timely delivery.
HM Treasury
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4
Recommendation
Accepted
Forty-Eighth Report - Digital Serv…
The Department has struggled to deliver the core technical components of the Digital Services at...
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 …
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Government Response
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, and ensuring performance testing in every release cycle.
HM Treasury
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5
Conclusion
Accepted
Forty-Eighth Report - Digital Serv…
We see a clear risk that the Department will not be able to deliver the...
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 …
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Government Response
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.
HM Treasury
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6
Recommendation
Accepted
Forty-Eighth Report - Digital Serv…
The Department’s ambitions for the border and its delivery of practical improvements for users depend...
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 …
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Government Response
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.
HM Treasury
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11
Conclusion
Accepted
Forty-Eighth Report - Digital Serv…
Problems with the programme were compounded by instability among its senior leadership.
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 …
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Government Response
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 approaches.
HM Treasury
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12
Conclusion
Accepted
Forty-Eighth Report - Digital Serv…
The Department failed to act on risks that were being flagged.
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 …
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Government Response
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.
HM Treasury
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13
Conclusion
Accepted
Forty-Eighth Report - Digital Serv…
The Department has faced repeated technical difficulties in delivering the programme.
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 …
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Government Response
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, monthly boards, and embedded internal assurance.
HM Treasury
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15
Conclusion
Accepted
Forty-Eighth Report - Digital Serv…
The programme suspended an attempted roll-out of the Border Crossing system in March 2020.28 The...
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 …
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Government Response
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.
HM Treasury
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19
Conclusion
Accepted
Forty-Eighth Report - Digital Serv…
There has been some improvement in the risk ratings applied to the programme.
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 …
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Government Response
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.
HM Treasury
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21
Conclusion
Accepted
Forty-Eighth Report - Digital Serv…
The Department’s ambitions for the border as a whole and delivery of practical improvements for...
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 …
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Government Response
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.
HM Treasury
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22
Conclusion
Accepted
Forty-Eighth Report - Digital Serv…
The Department stated that, if the programme is not delivered on time, its contingency is...
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 …
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Government Response
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.
HM Treasury
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Correspondence 4 letters
21 Sep 2021
Correspondence from Matthew Rycroft, Permanent Secretary, Home Office, re Digital Services at the Border (DSAB) Programme Project: update on Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) Gateway 0 Review, dated 14 September 2021
Parliament page
10 Jun 2021
Correspondence from Matthew Rycroft CBE, Permanent Secretary, Home Office, re Recommendation 1 Forty-Eighth report of the 2019-2021 – Digital Services at the Border, dated 3 June 2021
Parliament page
16 Apr 2021
Correspondence from Matthew Rycroft CBE, Permanent Secretary, Home Office, re Digital Service at the border, dated 25 March 2021
Parliament page
23 Feb 2021
Correspondence from Matthew Rycroft CBE, Permanent Secretary, Home Office, re Digital Services at the boarders, dated 12 February 2021
Parliament page