‘Staggering’ cost of border security tech failures highlighted

The Public Accounts Committee has claimed that the Home Office continues to have a miserable record of exorbitantly expensive digital programmes that fail to deliver for the taxpayer or for border security.

A new report from the committee blasts a ‘lack of effective leadership, management and oversight’ that has seen delays to the Digital Services at the Border (DSAB) programme having cost the taxpayer £173 million so far.

MPs found that the 'Border Crossing' part of the programme is being used by only 300 border staff, against the 7,000 supposed to be using the system by June 2021, and previous attempts to roll out Border Crossing experienced technical difficulties.

The Home Office is planning for more than 140 million passengers a year to pass through its the new DSAB systems but it still has ‘no proof’ that systems can cope with passenger volumes that existed prior to the coronavirus pandemic, ‘let alone the six per cent annual growth in the volume of passengers’ it predicts.

The Public Accounts Committee report also look at the Home Office’s poor record on delivering technology programmes, such as the Emergency Services Network which is costing taxpayers £650 million a year and is currently running six years late.

MPs say that the Home Office has failed to ‘identify, acknowledge and be transparent about problems’ in delivering tech programmes that are ‘crucial to national security objectives’ of protecting the public from terrorism, crime, illegal immigration and trafficking, and also vital for facilitating the legitimate movement of people across the border.

Meg Hillier MP, chair of the committee, said: "Immigration and border security are among the biggest political issues of our time. It is incredible that the Home Office can have failed so badly, for so long, to deliver technology that is crucial to our national security objectives: crucial to protecting the public from terrorism, crime, illegal immigration and trafficking, and crucial to facilitating legitimate movement across the border.

“The Home Office has struggled to get to grips with the technical challenges, resetting the programme and changing the leadership repeatedly. And it is the tax payer hit by both the financial cost and the risks to our security."