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Home Office hands £28M to immigration IT incumbents after procurement challenge
The Home Office has awarded £28 million in non-competitive extensions to PA Consulting and Mastek to keep its Atlas immigration and asylum IT system running after a procurement process for replacement support contracts was withdrawn. The move matters because Atlas supports critical immigration and asylum casework, while the delayed procurement prolongs reliance on incumbent suppliers and highlights continuing difficulties replacing older systems.
PA Consulting received £13.5 million for five months and Mastek £15 million for four months, after Mastek challenged its exclusion from bidding for a £138 million Atlas contract; the case was settled in May 2026 without any admission of liability by the Home Office. A future procurement, estimated at £336 million including tax, is expected to cover asylum and non-asylum systems from June 2027, while Atlas—originally intended to replace the CID legacy system by 2021—has missed successive implementation deadlines.
In short
- Home Office extends Atlas contracts worth £28 million without competition.
- Legal challenge caused the earlier £138 million procurement to be withdrawn.
- Atlas replacement of the CID system remains significantly delayed.
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The case for
The Home Office faced a genuine crisis when the procurement process encountered legal challenge—Atlas supports critical immigration casework, and a service gap would harm vulnerable people and administrative functions. The government had to ensure continuity whilst resolving the legal challenge and preparing a proper competitive procurement for 2027. Whilst non-competitive extensions are not ideal, they were a pragmatic necessity to maintain operational continuity when system failure would be far more costly.
The case against
These non-competitive extensions undermine public procurement principles by avoiding the scrutiny and competitive pressure necessary for value for money. The incumbent suppliers had already missed successive implementation deadlines on Atlas itself, yet received further funding without apparent accountability. This arrangement creates perverse incentives, rewarding litigation rather than performance, and perpetuates the lock-in to incumbents that has characterised this programme's failures. A truly critical service demands even stronger accountability, not weaker.
Explained simply
Atlas is the Home Office's computer system that handles immigration and asylum cases. The government hires private companies to run and maintain it through competitive bidding processes. A planned procurement to find new support contractors was withdrawn after a legal challenge, forcing a rethink of how to keep the system running.
PA Consulting and Mastek have been supporting Atlas previously, and without a replacement procurement in place, the Home Office has extended their existing contracts without opening the work to competition. PA Consulting received £13.5 million for five months and Mastek £15 million for four months. This followed a May 2026 settlement with Mastek, which had challenged being excluded from bidding for a £138 million replacement contract.
Atlas is part of a larger pattern of delays and rising costs in government IT. Originally intended to replace an older system called CID by 2021, Atlas has missed successive implementation deadlines. A fresh procurement process is planned for June 2027, estimated at £336 million, to cover both asylum and non-asylum systems.