UK’s Home Office seeks integrated biometrics service partner

Britain's Home Office Biometrics (HOB) department has released a £15 m (US$20.2 m) digital tender for a programme delivery partner, as part of plans to create unified, integrated biometric service for immigration, law enforcement, international agencies and police.The partner will work with the HOB Programme team to deliver a large, complex programme converging IT systems into a cohesive, cost effective, user centred service.In it digital marketplace tender, the Home Office states that the start date will be no later than September 2016, and that the expected contract length is two years, within the context of a four year programme.”These capabilities have been developed independently over the last 20 years and the programme now seeks to converge them into a unified service. There is significant demand from stakeholders for enhanced quality and capability from the Home Office biometric systems. The programme will ensure continuity of the services beyond 2019; reduce IT costs (like-for-like service); and enhance capability.”The programme aims to build a unified, integrated biometric service that is effective, adaptable, efficient, proportionate and lawful. The existing immigration and law enforcement biometrics systems are large, complex IT systems supporting thousands of users and millions of records. Stakeholders include border force and immigration, international agencies, and all police forces (across Great Britain and Northern Ireland).”The HOB notes that the partner will need to create a flexible and rapid system, as it will need to be deployed in locations that include custody suites, mobile locations, borders, passport office, visa application centres, among others.Only five suppliers are to be evaluated for the role.Last April, 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.

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