HM Passport Office’s regional office in Durham. Credit: John M / CC BY-SA 2.0

French IT services firm Atos has secured a contract from the UK’s Passport Office to provide business intelligence and infrastructure.

Initially, the term of the contract is for two years, and has scope to be extended for an additional three years.

The contract’s estimated value of £21m is for a maximum five years.

This contract has been awarded from Crown Commercial Services Technology and is part of Passport Office’s Digital Future Services programme.

As per the contract award notice, the spending under the contract would “be via short, specific work packages for the support, maintenance and development of… applications and services.”

As per a government IT transformation report in 2017, the Passport Office’s paper-based case working system would be transformed digital.

Where feasible, checks would become automated and will be “supplemented by extensive use of data analytics.”

The report further added that the Passport Office would “make greater use of the data it holds, offering data verification services more widely to the public, private sector and other parts of government to combat identity fraud and protect citizens.”

The Passport Office caters to over 8 million customers annually.

It handles registration of important life events such as births, marriages, deaths, adoptions in England and Wales via the General Register Office.