The Innovation Award Shortlist

Business Assurance Team, UK Border Agency and The Home Office

Verification Plus (V) came from the innovation of visa officers; the project was established within the UK Border Agency to make better visa decisions. V uses data from across Government; we are really joining up all the information the government has about migrants and their sponsors. We have expanded the range of checks available to visa officers overseas dealing with our highest-risk applications. Over two years the project team has been supplementing traditional visa decision-making with extra checks, using data held by HMRC, DWP and NHS.

We have significantly improved the quality of decision-making for both visas granted as well as those refused. Results have been most beneficial in those places where decision-making is usually very difficult (e.g. South Asia and West Africa). The output is not just useful for UKBA, but also for other government departments, e.g. the identification and collection of monies owed to the NHS from visa applicants who received NHS treatment to which they were not entitled (£300k); the identification of HMRC/DWP fraud being committed by UK sponsors of visa applicants.

The project has shown there are huge potential benefits financial and reputational for the whole of Government. V contributes towards ‘securing our border and reducing immigration’.