UK e-Borders audit: findings, the Raytheon dispute and the successor programme

What the audit found

The NAO value-for-money report E-borders and successor programmes (HC 608, session 2015/16) was published on 3 December 2015. It found the Home Office spent at least £830 million between 2003 and 2015 on e-Borders and the programmes that followed it ¹.

The NAO broke the spending down as more than £340 million on e-Borders from 2006/07 to 2010/11, £150 million on the Raytheon settlement, £35 million on legal costs, £303 million on successor programmes from 2011/12 to 2014/15 and £89 million on improving legacy systems over the same years ¹.

The report found the Home Office received data on 86% of passengers travelling to the UK in September 2015, against a target of 95% by December 2010. It found the department had not built an integrated system, so processing still involved manual work and duplication. There were eight programme directors between 2003 and 2015 ¹. Comptroller and Auditor General Amyas Morse said: "I cannot view e-borders as having delivered value for money" ¹.

An earlier inspection by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, published on 9 October 2013, found advance passenger information covered 65% of passenger movements in March 2013, against a 2007 plan for at least 95% by December 2010. It found about £472 million was spent from 2007/08 to 2012/13 and that e-Borders data had led to the arrest of thousands of people wanted by police. It made 14 recommendations ^2,3.

The official response

The Home Office ended the Raytheon contract in July 2010, citing failure to meet milestones ¹. After the arbitration award in August 2014, immigration minister James Brokenshire called the contract "a mess" and said ministers still backed the decision to end it, as reported by Caroline Baldwin of Computer Weekly. He said the government was considering further legal options and had asked the NAO to review e-Borders from its start ⁴. He put the cost of the contract to taxpayers at £259.3 million ⁴. The NAO later reported more than £340 million spent on e-Borders from 2006/07 to 2010/11, a wider measure over a different period ¹.

In a letter to Home Affairs Committee chair Keith Vaz dated 27 March 2015, the Home Secretary said the £150 million settlement was well below the tribunal's award and avoided further payments, including £50 million in letters of credit and legal costs. The letter said the settlement "recognises no admission of liability on the part of the government" ⁶.

In a company statement on 27 March 2015, Raytheon said its UK subsidiary had reached "an amicable settlement" with the Home Office, which would pay £150 million to resolve all claims and counterclaims ⁷.

Parliament

The Home Secretary reported the settlement to the Home Affairs Committee in the 27 March 2015 letter ⁶.

The Committee of Public Accounts published its 27th report of session 2015/16, e-Borders and Successor Programmes (HC 643), on 4 March 2016. It concluded the programmes would be at least eight years late and cost much more, with no one accepting responsibility ⁸.

The government replied in a Treasury Minute dated 25 May 2016 (Cm 9270). It accepted four of the five recommendations and did not accept the recommendation on management information, saying the department already had the data it needed to manage the border. It disagreed with the committee's finding that no one took responsibility, saying each programme had clear senior responsible owners ⁸.

Follow-up audits and recommendations

The NAO returned to the successor work in Digital Services at the Border (HC 1069, session 2019/21), published on 9 December 2020. It found the programme missed its original March 2019 deadline with only one of three planned systems, Border Crossing, live by then. A 2019 reset moved delivery to the end of March 2022. The NAO put the added cost of missing the original timetable at £173 million and concluded the department "did not achieve value for money against its plans" between 2014 and 2019 ⁹.

The 2020 report said the Warnings Index was 26 years old and Semaphore 16 years old, and the department considered both costly and hard to maintain ⁹.

Courts, tribunals and investigations

Raytheon began legal proceedings in 2011 and sought £500 million, as reported by Computer Weekly ⁴. On 4 August 2014 an arbitration tribunal found the contract had been wrongfully terminated and awarded Raytheon £186 million plus interest. The Home Secretary's letter put the total with estimated interest of £38 million at about £224 million, with costs reserved ^6,5.

The Home Office challenged the award in the High Court under section 68 of the Arbitration Act 1996. In December 2014 Mr Justice Akenhead found serious irregularity (neutral citation 2014 EWHC 4375 TCC). In a judgment of 17 February 2015 (2015 EWHC 311 TCC), he set the whole award aside for resolution by a different arbitral tribunal and granted both parties permission to appeal ⁵.

The two sides described the court result in different terms. The Home Secretary's letter of 27 March 2015 said the court "found significant flaws in the Tribunal award" and ordered it set aside ⁶. Raytheon's statement of the same date said a High Court judge "partially upheld" the Home Office challenge but stayed that decision and granted both parties permission to appeal ⁷. Raytheon put the award at £186 million plus interest, and Computer Weekly reported that Raytheon's own figure for the relief was about £185 million ^4,7.

The case settled on 27 March 2015 for £150 million before any new tribunal heard it ^6,7.

Where it stands now

The Raytheon dispute ended with the March 2015 settlement ⁶. The Home Office accounting officer assessment for Digital Services at the Border, first published on 6 September 2022 and last updated on 6 July 2026, describes delivery as in its closing stages, quotes a whole-life cost estimate of £1.01 billion and says closure was expected in early 2023 ¹⁰.

No public programme closure report for Digital Services at the Border and no public date for retiring the Warnings Index were found as of 19 October 2026 ¹⁰.

Timeline