Poor IT procurement 'held back points-based immigration system'

14 Mar 11
IT procurement errors hampered the UK Border Agency’s launch of the points-based immigration system, the National Audit Office has found.
By Mark Smulian


15 March 2011

IT procurement errors hampered the UK Border Agency’s launch of the points-based immigration system, the National Audit Office has found.

The system was introduced in 2008 to rationalise 39 visa routes into five ‘tiers’ of permitted immigration for work and study.

In a report, Immigration: the points based system – work routes, the NAO said that the agency had ‘delivered a functioning system’ but ‘inadequate governance and a poor IT procurement process led to delays, reductions in scope and additional cost’.

The auditors also found that agency paid computer firm Fujitsu £4m in 2007 to develop applications it never used.

It then removed some IT functions to save money, which prevented it from properly handling relations with businesses that sponsor migrants.

Its management of migrant applications was ‘inefficient, mainly because of poor legacy IT’, with staff having to consult so many databases that case handling times were 20% longer than necessary.

Auditors said the UKBA lacked basic management information, so that up to 181,000 people with expired visas might still be in the country.

NAO head Amyas Morse said today: ‘The UK Border Agency’s points-based system is not yet delivering its full potential for value for money.

‘While it is well designed and adaptable, the underlying systems and management information are in need of improvement.’

The points-based system has five tiers for entry eligibility for highly skilled people entering the country to find work; skilled workers with a specific job; students; young temporary workers. The tier for low-skilled workers has not been implemented.

Margaret Hodge, chair of the Commons Public Accounts Committee, said: ‘Gaps in data, poor risk management and inefficient processes mean that we cannot be certain that [the system] either ensures proper controls or meets the UK’s need for skilled labour.’

Immigration minister Damian Green said the government would reintroduce exit checks at borders by 2015.

‘We are determined to reduce net migration to the tens of thousands, and clamp down on immigration abuses,’ he said.

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