Home Office appoints Leidos UK to deliver transformation of its biometrics platform
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Leidos, a FORTUNE® 500 science and technology leader, has today been appointed by the UK Home Office to transition, operate and transform critical elements of the UK’s national biometrics systems in support of law enforcement, immigration services and border security.
Work will be performed as part of the Home Office Biometrics (HOB) Programme’s Strategic Central and Bureau Platforms project which cements the Home Office strategy to digitally transform their biometrics systems through increased performance, capability, security and resilience to create a world leading biometrics capability across government.
Biometric technology is a critical element of UK national security and public safety infrastructure and the Home Office provides the biometric capability for fingerprints, DNA, and facial matching. Up until now, this has been done through two heritage systems; IDENT1 for UK police forces and law enforcement, and Immigration and Asylum biometrics system (IABS).
The new 10-year contract with the Home Office will see Leidos UK transition, operate and converge the core Central and Bureau elements of IDENT1 and IABS systems, collaborating with the Home Office and their partners to deliver the modernisation and disaggregation of these existing systems. Further to this, Leidos will deliver a full infrastructure transformation, converging both the systems on a secure and resilient public cloud-based platform, providing a springboard for further digital transformation of this critical service.
This project will not be making any changes to who can access IABS and IDENT1. Access will continue to be determined by the Home Office.
“We look forward to working with the Home Office and its partners to deliver transformation across the key components of the Home Office Biometrics transformation programme,” said Tim Crofts,
Leidos UK vice president of business development and strategy. “This capability is vital to the UK’s security, border and policing services and we will bring to bear our 50 years’ experience in delivering complex change to transform and secure critical services for government departments and agencies.”
