Government Shaves £50m From Biometric Database

The UK Borders Agency (UKBA) said on 9 September it will save £50 million by re-negotiating a contract with IBM for the construction of a biometric database previously linked to the ID cards programme.

The National Identity Assurance Service (NIAS) system will provide a database of fingerprints and facial images to help control the entry of non-EU nationals into the UK.

Immigration minister Damian Green said the system is necessary to protect the UK from terrorist threats. It had been in danger of cancellation along with the rest of the ID cards programme.

“This system will strengthen our ability to control the entry of foreign nationals into the United Kingdom and identify those who pose a risk to our country,” Green said in a parliamentary statement. “Those who have previously been deported, or committed a criminal offence, or been turned down for a visa will find it much harder to enter the UK.”

Faster checks

The savings were achieved by scrapping a component of the project that would have stored data on UK nationals.

The database will be used to speed up the checking of biometric visas, registration cards for asylum seekers and biometric residente permits, Green said.

The agency said the scheme will be able to grow to adapt to future immigration applications processes, including a streamlined border entry process.

The promise to abandon plans to store UK nationals’ biometric data in a database was made at the time that the the Lib-Con coalition laid out its initial plans for government.

The revised contract will cost £191m over seven years, and is scheduled for delivery at the end of next year. The database will replace a system first commissioned in 2000.