Delays hit £70m Siemens database

Siemens Business Services (SBS) admitted today for the first time that its £70m Private Finance Initiative (PFI) scheme to supply an immigration caseworking database to the Home Office is running at least six months late.

An SBS spokeswoman said: "There have been some delays in the piloting and testing of the system and, unfortunately, we can't actually say at this point when it is going to be delivered."

The Home Office's Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND) entered into the PFI scheme in March 1996. SBS was commissioned to redesign national immigration processes around a single IT system which it will then lease back to the IND in keeping with the PFI model. The project details included the start-up date of October 98.

A Home Office spokesman said he was told the system will be up and running by April 1999 but said he is still waiting for this to be confirmed by SBS. "Just like in any new PFI scheme, SBS is aware it will incur financial penalties for every month it delays delivery of the project. So we're still hopeful it'll roll the project out on time," he added.

But as the project leader, SBS, is itself unable to confirm a delivery date, the Home Office may yet face a longer wait.