Delays in implementing the Atlas system for immigration casework have contributed to the Home Office’s problems in its asylum protection and transformation programme, according to the National Audit Office (NAO).
The auditor has published a report on the programme stating that the Home Office is not on track to achieve the full benefits and it is not clear whether its efforts to clear the backlog of asylum applications are sustainable.
This is partly due to the delays in implementing Atlas, which is being delivered through a separate programme.
The report says that caseworkers have been unable to add notes on asylum claims to the system and been forced to ‘double key’ information into that and the older platform. The Home Office said this ended in April of this year and that it expects to decommission the old system in September; but progress will depend on managing competing demands for the department’s design and digital capacity.
Delays with Atlas have also affected the Home Office’s ability to understand the programme’s performance and the impact of changes to the asylum system. Staff have had to collate information from separate spreadsheets to bring together information.
This undermines one of the two portfolios within the programme, to redesign processes, implement new technology and improve staff retention.
Business case weakness
As a whole, the programme is aimed at reducing costs by speeding up decision making and reducing the number of people in hotel accommodation. It was launched in 2021, is expected to cost around £430 million and achieve savings of £15 billion in the 10 years to 2032 – but the NAO says the business case is based on a range of highly uncertain assumptions.
Other problems include that only a fifth of caseworkers are fully trained and the Home Office is failing to meet its targets to secure enough accommodation.
The NAO concludes that the department needs to better coordinate and manage the impact of the full range of changes it is implementing, or it could shift backlogs and cost pressures to other areas rather than resolving them.
Gareth Davies, head of the NAO, said: "Despite recent progress, the asylum and protection transformation programme is a long way from meeting government's ambitions to reduce the cost and improve the quality of the service,
“The Home Office has nearly doubled the number of decisions made each week, although it is unclear whether it will be enough to remove the backlog of older asylum decisions by the end of 2023. To date, the programme is not on track to achieve the expected benefits.”
