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The UK's Immigration and Nationality Directorate has welcomed back an IT supplier that was at the centre of its previous computer failures.
The Home Office commissioned Siemens Business Services to run IT systems for processing work permit and immigration application fees, it said on 21 February 2006.
The £6.7m outsourcing contract marks a return to the Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND) for the supplier. The directorate replaced Siemens Business Services with Atos Origin to run its main IT operations in 2004 after it was forced to shelve a failing £77m computer system.
Among its activities, the IND charges people who make applications to extend their permits to remain and work in the UK. Siemens Business Services will process these fees and handle cashiering services at four public enquiry offices in Croydon, Liverpool, Glasgow and Birmingham.
At present cashiering is carried out in house at these centres, but it will be outsourced to Siemens Business Services under the three year deal. The service for these centres is expected to start during summer 2006.
Two Siemens Business Services teams, one in Durham and the other in Sheffield, will process the 'leave to remain' and work permit applications.
