Home Office staff still leaning on 25-year-old asylum case management system
(2025/12/12)
- Reference: 1765531810
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/12/12/uk_asylum_atlas/
- Source link:
Despite completing its rollout of a new case management system, Home Office caseworkers are still referring back to data in a 25-year-old legacy system when processing asylum claims, according to a public spending watchdog.
The National Audit Office (NAO) also found problems with the data input on the newly implemented system, Atlas, that are delaying decisions.
Atlas was developed to digitize and automate routine tasks, and streamline the process.
How sticky notes saved 'the single biggest digital program in the world' [1]READ MORE
As asylum seekers have become the heightened focus of political attention in the UK, the [2]report published this week [PDF] revealed the Home Office's continuing problems with technology systems that process applications. The current cost of supporting people seeking asylum is "disproportionately high" at £4.0 billion in 2024-25 largely driven by long delays and backlogs.
The Home Office had previously agreed to migrate from its legacy system, Casework Information Database (CID), in 2020, but staff continue to refer back to the officially decommissioned system and there is evidence of case "identifying numbers from that system still being used."
[3]
Meanwhile, "errors or omissions in the data recorded in Atlas about people at the point they make their asylum claim was leading to time-consuming follow-up later by decision-making staff," the report found.
[4]
[5]
"Some teams used additional spreadsheets to help them manage their flow of work because Atlas does not yet provide the functionality they need," it said.
CID was first introduced in 2000. It was maintained by Atos and used Oracle Forms, Visual Basic 6, Oracle DB, MS Office Automation, FaceVACS, VB.Net, and COM+.
[6]
In June 2019, the Home Office responded to a Parliamentary report on the separate [7]Windrush scandal by agreeing to move off CID by March 2020. In September 2023, The Register revealed that the [8]Home Office had missed another deadline to get off the legacy system , which it agreed with the NAO. Data from March 2024 in a report from Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA), a joint body of HM Treasury and the Cabinet Office, said the tech migration has not taken place.
In April 2025, officials said most operations had switched over to Atlas, but [9]CID was still being used for some processing . They also said CID was due to be decommissioned "soon."
This week, the NAO report said: "The Home Office has faced significant challenges with transferring and merging its legacy data, improving functionality and upskilling staff to create a single reliable record in Atlas for each person seeking asylum. The process of resolving identities and linking records across systems is ongoing. The lack of a single, complete, reliable record of all the necessary data on each person seeking asylum is a constraint on the efficiency and quality of decision-making and the Home Office's ability to manage and forecast demand across the system."
[10]UK tax collector falls short on digital efficiency, watchdog says
[11]Britain's biggest nuclear site looks set to outlast SAP support again
[12]Keeping the lights on takes up nearly all police IT spending in England and Wales
[13]Just 15 buyers are in charge of £14B in UK central government tech spending
In a visit to Home Office processing centers, NAO staff found there was "no unique asylum case identifier shared by Home Office, [the courts system], and local authority systems."
They found the Home Office and the courts had developed arrangements to link applicant data between Atlas and the new court appeals case management system. "However, we saw problems with data sharing across the system, making it impossible to directly track individual cases through the entire asylum process," the report said.
[14]
"A lack of standardized information flow between local authorities and from the Home Office and accommodation providers to local authorities means that councils are not always notified when people move into or out of their areas, and may not be notified promptly when people who have been granted asylum move out of asylum accommodation. This hampers the ability of local authorities to provide appropriate, proactive support or to plan and allocate resources effectively," the report added. ®
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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/16/universal_credit_commons_committee/
[2] https://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/an-analysis-of-the-asylum-system.pdf
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aTv1wygTh0tCvRuoCOGh5QAAAFU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
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[7] https://www.theregister.com/2018/12/05/nao_windrush_liberty_data_sharing/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/06/home_office_assylum_system_replacement_deadline_missed/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/04/home_office_asylum_system/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/07/uk_tax_collector_falls_short/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/13/sellafield_sap_support/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/04/england_wales_it_policing_budget/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/06/ukgov_has_only_15_buyers/
[14] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aTv1wygTh0tCvRuoCOGh5QAAAFU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
The National Audit Office (NAO) also found problems with the data input on the newly implemented system, Atlas, that are delaying decisions.
Atlas was developed to digitize and automate routine tasks, and streamline the process.
How sticky notes saved 'the single biggest digital program in the world' [1]READ MORE
As asylum seekers have become the heightened focus of political attention in the UK, the [2]report published this week [PDF] revealed the Home Office's continuing problems with technology systems that process applications. The current cost of supporting people seeking asylum is "disproportionately high" at £4.0 billion in 2024-25 largely driven by long delays and backlogs.
The Home Office had previously agreed to migrate from its legacy system, Casework Information Database (CID), in 2020, but staff continue to refer back to the officially decommissioned system and there is evidence of case "identifying numbers from that system still being used."
[3]
Meanwhile, "errors or omissions in the data recorded in Atlas about people at the point they make their asylum claim was leading to time-consuming follow-up later by decision-making staff," the report found.
[4]
[5]
"Some teams used additional spreadsheets to help them manage their flow of work because Atlas does not yet provide the functionality they need," it said.
CID was first introduced in 2000. It was maintained by Atos and used Oracle Forms, Visual Basic 6, Oracle DB, MS Office Automation, FaceVACS, VB.Net, and COM+.
[6]
In June 2019, the Home Office responded to a Parliamentary report on the separate [7]Windrush scandal by agreeing to move off CID by March 2020. In September 2023, The Register revealed that the [8]Home Office had missed another deadline to get off the legacy system , which it agreed with the NAO. Data from March 2024 in a report from Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA), a joint body of HM Treasury and the Cabinet Office, said the tech migration has not taken place.
In April 2025, officials said most operations had switched over to Atlas, but [9]CID was still being used for some processing . They also said CID was due to be decommissioned "soon."
This week, the NAO report said: "The Home Office has faced significant challenges with transferring and merging its legacy data, improving functionality and upskilling staff to create a single reliable record in Atlas for each person seeking asylum. The process of resolving identities and linking records across systems is ongoing. The lack of a single, complete, reliable record of all the necessary data on each person seeking asylum is a constraint on the efficiency and quality of decision-making and the Home Office's ability to manage and forecast demand across the system."
[10]UK tax collector falls short on digital efficiency, watchdog says
[11]Britain's biggest nuclear site looks set to outlast SAP support again
[12]Keeping the lights on takes up nearly all police IT spending in England and Wales
[13]Just 15 buyers are in charge of £14B in UK central government tech spending
In a visit to Home Office processing centers, NAO staff found there was "no unique asylum case identifier shared by Home Office, [the courts system], and local authority systems."
They found the Home Office and the courts had developed arrangements to link applicant data between Atlas and the new court appeals case management system. "However, we saw problems with data sharing across the system, making it impossible to directly track individual cases through the entire asylum process," the report said.
[14]
"A lack of standardized information flow between local authorities and from the Home Office and accommodation providers to local authorities means that councils are not always notified when people move into or out of their areas, and may not be notified promptly when people who have been granted asylum move out of asylum accommodation. This hampers the ability of local authorities to provide appropriate, proactive support or to plan and allocate resources effectively," the report added. ®
Get our [15]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/16/universal_credit_commons_committee/
[2] https://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/an-analysis-of-the-asylum-system.pdf
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aTv1wygTh0tCvRuoCOGh5QAAAFU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
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[7] https://www.theregister.com/2018/12/05/nao_windrush_liberty_data_sharing/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/06/home_office_assylum_system_replacement_deadline_missed/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/04/home_office_asylum_system/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/07/uk_tax_collector_falls_short/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/13/sellafield_sap_support/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/04/england_wales_it_policing_budget/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/06/ukgov_has_only_15_buyers/
[14] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aTv1wygTh0tCvRuoCOGh5QAAAFU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Remember this when someone starts spouting off about immigrants
The major part of dealing with immigrants is paperwork, not how many turn up on the Kent coast.
Similar problems with the British justice system, the reason offenders are not promptly dealt with is the time it takes to get them before a judge and jury. Years of cutting justice department budgets because some of the money might be spent on lawyers providing legal representation so the accused are processed fairly and equitably by the legal system or providing prisoners with education and training so they are less likely to reoffend, has left the system short of capacity.
Justice delayed is injustice to victims, inefficient and diminishes the deterrence of "stiff sentencing" so beloved of the populist approach to criminal theory