Britain's Home Office has awarded a contract to global security firm Northrop Grumman to oversee a forensic and biometric interim capability service (FABrIC) that supports its national fingerprint database, IDENT1.In contract documents seen by Planet Biometrics, the Home Office states that the £77.4 million deal was finalised on 27 March. The contract will last for two years, with two possible extension periods of 12 months each.A supplier briefing was held in November to detail requirements for a supplier to operate and maintain FABrIC until a replacement solution was in place.”[The Home Office] seeks to provision continuity of the operational life of the capability, known as FABrIC until the Home Office Biometrics Programme delivers a longer term solution to replace both FABrIC and the immigration and asylum fingerprint system (IABS),” the tender said.IDENT1 is the UK's existing system for biometric identification and scenes of crime forensic case management. It is a bespoke system serving approximately 30,000 users at 500 physical locations and which interfaces with other national systems and local police force systems.The contract documents state that the deal is likely to be subcontracted, with 10.8% of the project likely going to third parties.

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