Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has undertaken an assessment of the effect of switching off the ATHENA border force software at the end of May 2016 on the Border Force.

Athena was replaced by the Single Intelligence Platform (SIP) at the beginning of May 2016. The single intelligence platform was designed specifically for intelligence across the Border Force, Immigration Enforcement and HM Passport Office. It is better suited to the operational needs of Home Office intelligence, is simpler to use, has greater functionality than Athena and has delivered significant efficiencies. SIP has enabled wider access including HM Passport Office.

It has been built and developed by Home Office Digital Data and Technology. Improvements and new functionality are added on a weekly basis. The user research conducted every week provides a wealth of empirical evidence confirming the positive effect on the user experience.

Information from the decommissioned Athena database remains available and accessible to intelligence staff in Immigration Enforcement and Border Force.