UK: e-Borders project underway as Home Office requests bidders for £400m contract

The battle to win the £400m contract for the UK Government’s border surveillance project has begun. The e-Borders programme aims to deliver secure border control for the 21st century by collecting passenger information through the use of new technology, including biometrics. The programme will provide authorities with a passenger movement audit trail enabling them to assess the risk of passengers entering and leaving the UK and safeguard against terrorism.

The 15 year contract is for the design, development and operations of the IT systems that will link UK border control authorities, international border control points and travel industry systems. IBM was awarded the contract for the three-year pilot scheme for the programme "Project Semaphore" in November 2004.

Tenders or requests to participate must be received by 7 November 2005 and the project is expected to roll out from 2008, to coincide with the introduction of biometric ID cards. Selected candidates will receive an ITT on 28 February 2006.

In line with other countries across the globe, including Australia and the United States, the UK Government is setting the wheels in motion for the most ambitious border surveillance system to date. "e-Borders" aims to modernise border control by integrating management of passenger information. Passenger data (including fingerprints, iris scans and information from airlines) will be collected at the point of arrival and departure and used to "profile" a passenger. This data will be retained by and shared between government agencies to keep track of the movements of a passenger, allowing them to filter out any potential threats to security and prevent those identified as a security risk from travelling. e-Borders will initially be funded by the Government although the regulatory impact assessments suggests that passengers may be charged a "small fee" to cover costs.

Project Semaphore, the three-year, £15m pilot scheme began at the end of 2004. IBM was awarded the initial contract with the aim of developing technology to process advance passenger information provided by the airlines on ten routes in and out of the UK and covering 10 million passengers.

As part of the e-Borders programme, the Government also signed a five-year contract with Sagem SA to develop the Iris Recognition System (IRIS) aimed at providing fast and secure clearance across borders using biometric technology. IRIS is due to be implemented at Heathrow in March 2005 with the other major airports to follow.

The Government has now started the formal procurement process for the e-Borders system, which will be used to monitor airline passengers. The contract will deliver the IT systems, shared operations and support systems required for the integrated border control project. It is anticipated that the contract duration will be for a minimum of five years and a maximum of 15 years. The Home Office is looking for between three and eight suppliers to submit bids before the deadline of 7 November 2005. Selected suppliers will be sent invitations to tender by the end of February 2006.

The first phase of the full implementation of e-Borders is expected to take place in 2008.

This article was written for Law-Now, CMS Cameron McKenna's free online information service. To register for Law-Now, please go to www.law-now.com/law-now/mondaq

The original publication date for this article was 19/10/2005.