Ministers have revealed that, while there were various discrete connectivity issues encountered in 2023 by the IABS platform used to process facial and fingerprint data, no catastrophic failures were recorded

The core Home Office IT system for processing biometric information at the UK border suffered “a number of lower-priority incidents” across the course of last year – but no “critical” failures.

The primary platform used by immigration authorities to perform checks on data including fingerprints and facial scans is the Immigration and Asylum Biometric System (IABS). According to Home Office guidance, IABS “is used by Border Force, UK Visas and Immigration and Immigration Enforcement to fix a person to an identity and verify them at the border and in-country”.

The 12-year-old platform encountered issues on various occasions last year, but these were largely handled via workaround plans. No problems were classified at the highest levels of severity, according to minister for migration and citizenship Seema Malhotra.

“There are a number of biometric systems that are deployed at the border, primarily to ensure security, but also to facilitate a smooth flow of passengers,” she said. “Examples include facial recognition performed at eGates, as well as finger-print checking by Border Force officers where a passenger is processed manually. The majority of the checks are performed utilising … IABs and, during 2023, there were no critical incidents logged against that service.”

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The minister added: “There were a number of lower-priority incidents, all of which were resolved within required timescales and appropriate business contingency measures were put in place to ensure that border security was not compromised. The specific contingency measures vary according by biometric system but, for example, where a biometric recording machine is being used and it has lost connectivity to IABS, the data captured will be stored locally until it is reconnected to IABS.”

Malhotra, who was answering a written parliamentary question from Reform MP Rupert Lowe, added that technology platforms deployed at the border form part of government’s wider work on “creating a streamlined, digital immigration system which will be quicker and more secure for the millions of people who pass through the border each year, and will enhance the security of the UK”.

While IABS is used for immigration-related purposes, law enforcement uses the IDENT1 biometrics databases.

The ongoing Home Office Biometrics Programme – a £1.2bn initiative that forms part of the government major portfolio – is intended to deliver single converged system to be used across immigration, policing and the intelligence services. Work began in 2014, and delivery is slated to conclude by March of next year.