UK Home Office eyes suppliers for SCBP biometrics platform

The Home Office is hosting a preliminary market engagement event to engage with potential suppliers for two not-yet-guaranteed future procurements covering “the support, development, transition and ongoing modernization of the Strategic Central and Bureau Platform and associated services (SCBP).”

A release explains that SCBP “underpins a range of biometric, identity, and law enforcement systems, supporting operational decision‑making across immigration, borders, policing and wider law enforcement activity.” It supports both live operational services and analytical capabilities, operating at national scale and across a complex network.

SCBP is considered a “key component of the Home Office Biometrics landscape, which provides a shared, resilient capability to host and support multiple biometric and identity‑related services, enabling the secure processing, storage and exchange of sensitive data.”

Parties interested in exploring procurements should be able to provide some combination of the following: biometrics experience; platform hosting and infrastructure; services application and platform engineering and support services; security, resilience and availability services; integration with dependent Home Office and third‑party systems; data management, environment management and tooling; transition, onboarding and knowledge transfer services; support for live service operations and continuous improvement; and transformation services.

“Precise scope, delivery model and commercial structure are subject to further development and will be informed by this and subsequent market engagement activity.”

Recently, much of the technology powering SCBP has been transferred onto widely adopted modern technology stacks. This, says the release, opens up development and support to a wider range of providers.

“As a result,” says the announcement, “the Home Office is currently considering its future commercial and delivery approach for SCBP including potential disaggregation and is keen to engage early with the market to test assumptions, gather supplier insight, and inform the development of its procurement strategy, scope and delivery model.”

Market event seeks feedback

The upcoming event will give suppliers additional background on the SCBP program and potential procurements. It will offer an overview of emerging commercial and delivery considerations, and provide opportunities for feedback and questions. Those interested in attending the session must sign a non-disclosure agreement.

Per the release, following the event, suppliers who express an interest may also be invited to participate in optional 1:1 sessions with the Home Office to discuss relevant capabilities, potential solutions and lessons learned from comparable programs.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  border security  |  Home Office Biometrics (HOB)  |  identity management  |  law enforcement  |  procurement