Would You like a feature Interview?
All Interviews are 100% FREE of Charge
The Home Office was alerted to problems with a £71m flawed IT system and the “terrible” data it produced several years ago and “just accepted it”, according to Britain’s former chief immigration officer.
David Neil, who was sacked as Independent Chief Inspector of Immigration and Border Protection (ICIBI) in February, spoke. I How concerned is he about the department’s response to the dysfunctional Atlas casework system?
“I think they already know what the problem is [with Atlas]I mean, it’s not very good,” he said. “There has been resistance from authorities to new computer systems, but this was beyond that.”
his comment is I An investigation found that Atlas, which was meant to “automate” asylum, citizenship and visa applications, was instead causing severe delays and errors due to a series of bizarre glitches, some of which caused “serious incidents”. It has become clear that there are some things that are considered to be
This has left NHS staff unable to start work, delayed action against illegal immigrants and left children waiting up to 21 months for British citizenship.
Mr Neil this week said the Home Office was “dysfunctional” and needed reform, saying he had seen “signs” of the Atlas problem in its wider work on visas, asylum and foreign criminals.
He first became aware of their existence during an inspection of visas issued to families wishing to settle in the UK in 2021. Atlas was subsequently taken issue with by Home Office staff in several reports he produced.
“The background is that Atlas is not very good, everyone knows that,” he said. I. “The data is terrible and the fact that we have to put workarounds in place speaks for itself.”
The Home Office said Atlas was in the early stages of testing and deployment in 2021 and since then “substantial changes have been made to improve data quality”.
Neal said he was not aware of any discussions about pausing the Atlas rollout, which began in 2019, or making any major changes to how it works. He still found problems with the system in his report last year.
“This is a very big issue and it’s just being accepted,” he said. I. “Atlas is the foundation for everyone working in this field.”
He has repeatedly warned of widespread problems with “unacceptably bad” data collection and handling within the Home Office, which he said was affecting work across all of the Home Office’s operations.
“Data has always been an issue when we do testing, and that will be in every report,” he added. “This is nothing new for the Home Office. I have been saying this to the Home Office for three years.”
The Home Office’s internal ‘risk register’ in October 2022 rated the switch from the old system to Atlas as a ‘significant’ risk and warned about inaccurate data.
‘Meanless’ letters and visa applications ‘fell into a black hole’
The Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration issued a series of warnings to the Home Office about Atlas.
*According to the 2021 ICIBI report on family visas, Atlas has contributed to faster decision-making but does not allow caseworkers to record the rationale behind their actions and does not allow for appeals or legal challenges. It was found that difficulties arose when the claim arose.
The issue had to be “raised with the developers of Atlas”, and civil servants described the system as a “minimum viable product” during the inspection.
*A separate ICIBI report from 2021 warns that the atlas contains inaccurate data on asylum seekers and does not record those receiving Home Office support while staying in government hotels did.
*The following year, ICIBI published excerpts from an internal Home Office report that found Atlas and other IT systems were being “developed in silos” and authorities had to “replicate information across multiple systems.” It has been found.
The September 2021 report added: “The large amount of manual input of information creates opportunities for human error.”
The “double keying” of immigration data and case information between Atlas and the system it was intended to replace did not end until last year.
*According to the 2022 ICIBI report on visas for Hong Kongers, Home Office caseworkers reported “technical glitches and ‘system errors’ in Atlas that caused the application to get stuck in the system” and that children were He said he had reported being left stranded without a visa.
Civil servants have told the watchdog that some applications have “fallen into a black hole” due to errors, meaning they cannot be processed, but those affected have been told that the delays were caused by “technical issues”. He said he was only informed.
“Caseworkers were dissatisfied with these issues and the slow response of IT support teams across the Home Office,” the report said.
When the team behind Atlas updated their system, they were automatically sent a series of letters that “contained symbols and gibberish and misspelled words.”
*In the 2023 ICIBI inspection for deporting foreign criminals, Atlas said “inaccurate data poses a barrier to deportation” and “requires no place of detention or change of place of detention”. It was found that “normal tasks such as documenting people are taking several times as long as deporting them.” completion”.
Published government contracts show that £71 million has been spent on Atlas since 2019, but the system is part of a wider ‘Immigration Platform Technology’ programme, so the real cost is much more. It is considered expensive.
The September 2022 valuation was not published until January this year, but the program has cost £406m since 2014 and is expected to cost a further £66m by the time it is completed. He said there was.
Neal was fired after he was accused of leaking confidential information to a newspaper, and his position is not expected to be filled for several months.
He said this week that he believed he would be “exonerated” and that his dismissal meant that “there is no oversight of small vessels, and there is no oversight of small vessels, a controversial area for adults at risk in detention.” There is also no monitoring of the publication of Rwandan materials.”
The Ministry of Home Affairs said the ICIBI report is a snapshot in time and does not affect subsequent improvements, but further updates are planned.
The spokesperson added: “The new casework system was in the early stages of testing and deployment in 2021.
“Since then, significant changes have been made to improve data quality, user experience, and casework productivity across multiple application types.
“This has ensured a more efficient, accurate and comprehensive UK immigration system that processes over one million cases each year.”