The Home Office will need to overturn a long legacy of failure to achive ambition of all-digital border by 2025
- Reference: 1621861309
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/05/24/the_home_office_will_need/
- Source link:
In the hope of accurately measuring immigration for the first time, the launch of the new plans come just two months after MPs revealed the current UK digital border system, which was delayed by more than a year, was only stable enough to be used by 4 per cent of intended users.
In the Home Office [1]paper launched today , the department said it would introduce a universal "permission to travel" requirement supported by an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) scheme, which it said would be “fully in place by the end of 2024”, and be able to process up to 30 million applications per year.
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“The ETA scheme will enable the government to conduct security checks on passengers and make more informed decisions on information obtained at an earlier stage, as to whether individuals should be allowed to travel to the UK,” the paper said.
To enable the new system, the department promised it was “improving critical infrastructure to support a range of [its] systems, and those of key security partners, law enforcement and other government departments”.
The Home Office said it is working with travel organisations “to deliver a fully digital end-to-end system” which would replace physical documents needed to prove travellers are eligible to enter the UK.
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“We intend to provide that information directly to the carriers in digital format, but this requires partnership working and strong engagement to ensure it is deliverable by 2024,” the policy documents said.
Promising to smooth the flow of border entries using digital automation, the Home Office said individuals with an electronic permission would not need to show physical proof.
“Our intention is to significantly increase the use of automation, in particular ensuring that the majority of all arrivals to the main UK ports will pass through some form of contactless corridor or automated gates for identity and security checks,” the department said.
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The strategy document also said the government plans to develop “identity solutions” to allow it to capture a person’s biographic and biometric identity just once, and as early as possible, in “new, unobtrusive ways.”
Putting aside the broader implications for civil liberties and the refugee process, the department clearly is not about to let its long experience of difficulties in introducing computer systems to manage border control stop it setting ambitious timetables for new, as yet ill-defined, systems.
[7]Delayed UK digital border system was only stable enough to be used by 4% of intended users, MPs say
[8]Seagate UK customer stung by VAT on replacement drive shipped via the Netherlands
[9]Delay upgrading the UK's legacy border systems has added £336m to taxpayers' bill
[10]It may date back to 1994 but there's no end in sight for the UK's Chief customs system as Brexit rules beckon
[11]With less than two months left, let's check in on Brexit: All IT systems are up and running and ready to go, says no one
Parliamentary spending watchdog the Public Accounts Committee [12]found in March that the current Digital Services at the Border (DSAB) programme, which was supposed to go live in March 2019, would not be delivered until 2022, a delay costing £173m.
The Home Office had to suspend the 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 per cent of the days it was in operation, the report found.
The Home Office started the DSAB programme in 2014 with a budget of £199m as the intended replacement for e-Borders, a project it abandoned following [13]the termination of its £750m contract with the main supplier, Raytheon , in 2010. At one point it was set to [14]cost £1bn and come in a full eight years late .
In 2015, public spending watchdog the National Audit Office said the e-Borders project had failed to deliver value for money.
The latest ambition for an all-digital immigration system was in stark contrast to the most recent PAC report. It found the Home Office’s entire major project portfolio was rated Red, meaning that it was impossible for it to deliver all its programmes on time and on budget. Digital Services at the Border and [15]Emergency Services Network were the biggest risks the MPs said. ®
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[1] https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/988518/FBIS_Strategy_Statement_-_Web_accessible.pdf
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YKvNm62-XoihL4p6I02yuAAAAEg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YKvNm62-XoihL4p6I02yuAAAAEg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YKvNm62-XoihL4p6I02yuAAAAEg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YKvNm62-XoihL4p6I02yuAAAAEg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YKvNm62-XoihL4p6I02yuAAAAEg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/15/delayed_digital_border_system_300/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/02/26/seagate_uk_customer_charged_vat/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2020/12/09/delays_to_home_office_border/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2020/11/24/no_end_in_sight_for_chief_customs_system/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2020/11/04/brexit_it_systems_not_ready/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/15/delayed_digital_border_system_300/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2014/08/19/raytheon_payout_uk_e_borders/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2016/03/04/eborders_at_least_eight_years_late_and_will_cost_more_than_1bn/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2020/09/15/mindset_reset_emergency_services_network/
[16] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: The problem here is
This lot are not competent enough to see any kind of largescale digital system up and running.
But so long as they slap a 3 word catchphrase or two on it, it'll be, "Job Well Done!":
Secure Our Borders.
Take Back Control.
Deport British Subjects.
Super. Smashing. Great. (You can't beat a bit of Bully. )
Re: The problem here is
This lot are not competent enough to see any kind of digital system up and running.
Cyber?
Doesn't cyber have to be implemented by an ex-ballet dancer?
On the plus side, Dame Darcy would do a better job than Dido. But who wouldn't?
Just politics .... again!
By the time 2025 comes around the current gum'nt will no loger be in power ..... so they'll be able to blame the late/lack of delivery on the new gum'nt coming in.
Re: Just politics .... again!
It will be the same government, just with Patel as PM.
Boris will outlast his usefulness soon - and depart for the other place.
Coming soon
to Bork! Bork! Bork!
Border hawk
I have become a bit of a 'border hawk' and believe that an improved border for the UK is long overdue. Great Britain is an island surrounded by rough seas yet the level of border security is surpassed by completely landlocked microstates that are part of Schengen. Knowing who comes and goes should be a given. That the UK did not have exit checks (registering who is leaving the country) until relatively recently is a disgrace.
I'm also not impressed by the headlines with outrage that "The UK is going to charge EU Citizens to visits the country!!!111" It's not as if the [1]European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS) that will become operational next year is not going to do the same thing. Want to go on holiday to Spain? That will be €7 for an application for any non-EU Citizen. And that is fine. If you can afford a plane ticket and a ticket for Madame Tussauds/fish 'n chips on the Costa del Sol you can afford a few quid for the entry registration process.
Now, will the UK system work? Of course not. It will be a giant omnishambles that will see massive cost overruns and missed deadlines. Half the current Cabinet will probably be serving prison sentences before it becomes operational and the next government will agree some connection between the EU and the UK system, including waiving each other's fees. But, I believe the principle is right. It makes perfect sense to know who is actually in the country and who has left again.
[1] https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/what-we-do/policies/borders-and-visas/smart-borders/etias_en
Re: Border hawk
"It makes perfect sense to know who is actually in the country and who has left again."
Like copying/digitizing the foreigners ID card at entry but not departure at british airports ?
Or much better if you use the eurotunnel, scanning car license plates when going to britain and waving through when going back, with the occasional security theatre like wiping the steering wheel to look for traces of whatever but not checking any other person in the car.
Even better when living in serviced apartments for three weeks, then going home for a week, then another three weeks in britain. The poor census guys really did not know how to cope with temporary "residents" and a "residency" that turned on and off several times in the census questionnaire period while also changing apartment numbers in the building complex due to other guests booking and our company unable to reserve the same apartments for the 7 month duration of the project.
By all means, i believe a "digital" border system will at least be "digital" in one aspect: either you get in(1) or not(0).
Re: Border hawk
Yes, you can be as anal as you want about keeping track of people who are entering the country but if you don't know who is leaving you still know next to nothing.
The real problem (although too complex for most cabinet ministers to comprehend) is that immigration does not take place at the border. There is no way for a chap at a Heathrow passport control booth to know for certain whether the person at their booth is there to visit Madame Tussauds and Borough Market and go back after ten days or whether they intend to never leave. And you will never know if that person was a 'visitor' or has become an 'immigrant' unless you also keep track of when they leave again.
If you want to have any meaningful policy about immigration you need to know who has left your country.
Re: Border hawk
Are you even tracking who leaves?
Those of us who took one look at the Brexit shambles and abandoned ship don't get added to the debit column.
There weren't even any turnstiles. How are you going to keep people in? You can't even build a wall now that you don't let E Germans in.
Will it really?
So the UK borders will become “fully digital” by the end of 2025?
Did she explain how the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic would work, without any border infrastructure?
And did she explain how the Common Travel Area would continue to work? It allows travel between the UK and Ireland (for UK and Irish nationals) without any documentation?
Boris Border
To be fair, the border infrastructure there will not be at the "Irish Border" but at the "Boris Border" through the Irish Sea.
I expect the CTA to remain virtually unchanged so people can still travel more or less in similar fashion between the two islands as they can now. I suspect they will base it on citizenship rather than geography so someone with an Irish passport will not have to apply for the scheme whereas an American traveling from Dublin to London will have to.
Re: Will it really?
Under the NIP Irish people are now officially white so border controls don't apply.
Scots are also allowed in freely, so long as they are posh Scots with surnames as first names
Re: Will it really?
The Irish require documentation from CTA people flying into Dublin
No doubt
The owners of The Ivy are rubbing their hands in glee at the prospect of yet another long running Crapita failure
So we are 15 years on from the point where the Labour minister responsible for the home office described it thus:-
"Our system is not fit for purpose. It is inadequate in terms of its scope, it is inadequate in terms of its information technology, leadership, management systems and processes," he told MPs.
If all of their existing IT systems are flagged as being likely to fail then I suggest that the problem is probably more attributable to the leadership, management systems and processes which were known to be defective 15 years ago.
The only way your going to do better is to design a new system with new staff and new management, slowly transfer responsibilities from the old team to the new one and then dismantle the old wreckage afterwards; to judge from the sea of red status reports on all of it's projects the existing department shows no great signs of being likely to manage a structured transition to normality any time soon.
Blaming the minister in charge of the omnishambles of a department is probably not going to help since several changes of ministers clearly hasn't fixed the problem in the last 15 years.
The problem here is
They are calling it digital, everyone knows proper UK gov' systems are called cyber.
One other stumbling block may be that shouting at it will not necessarily make it work.
Other stumbling blocks could include civil liberties, travel agencies in the UK and abroad being unable to make it work correctly or unable to understand it, and of course it's lack of competent leadership.
I would recommend looking for a job seeking baroness.