(By Anthony Miller – Tuesday, 7th April 2009 11:00am). I’ve just been speaking to the Home Office, who confirmed that the CSC contract (see CSC UK wins £385m ID-Passport contract) marks the end of Siemens Business Services’ (as was) long-standing contract (remember the queues of irate holidaymakers snaking round Petty France?). Atos and Sagem and a few other suppliers also get turfed when the current series of contracts end in the autumn.This deal is the second of four major deals to be awarded on behalf of the UK Identity & Passport Service (IPS) this year. Yesterday, IBM UK won a £265m/10 year contract to develop a new National Biometric Information Service for the UK Border Agency. Next off the block will be a £700m/10 year contact to redesign and manufacture the new UK biometric passports. In the frame are 3M SPL, De La Rue, Gemalto and Thales UK. Finally, the £300m/5 year contract for the technical design and production of the ID card will be awarded; Fujitsu, IBM and Thales are on the shortlist.
So, with the £385m CSC deal, that makes £1.65bn of contracts to be awarded so far – and there's more to come. For the sake of tax-payers, let’s really, really hope they don’t make a hash of it. Clearly a topic we will revisit many times.
No comments:
Post a Comment