Ask HN: Cause of UK e-gates outage?

Post by re-thc » Sat, May 27, 2023, 2:46 PM UTC

btc-ln-ftw wrote: post #9

Re: e-gates shambles Fujitsu's contract runs from 4 September 2021 to 2024 https://www.theregister.com/2021/09/09/fujitsu_border_crossi... https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/14/uk_border_upgrade_con... Re: Horizon disgrace Fujitsu has also, so far, escaped financial penalties, whereas the government has been forced to set aside £1bn to cover the costs of compensating victims of the scandal. Meanwhile, Fujitsu is con…

Post by blibble » Sat, May 27, 2023, 2:53 PM UTC

pydry wrote: post #24

nicktelford wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They honestly should be blacklisted after the Horizon scandal. Allowing them to get away with it sets a precedent that could encourage other companies to behave just as irresponsibly. As it stands, is yet another example of privatising profits while socialising the costs, just in this case, the costs weren't (entirely) financial.

A lot of UK government IT is like this and has been forever. There was a short period under the coalition where GDS was set up and they created a consistent framework for people to work with and would open a portion of the market up to smaller players. Now it's mostly large bodyshop middlemen like the prime minister's wife's company taking a 70% cut for the work of a cheap offshore developer.

Post by cmsj » Sat, May 27, 2023, 2:54 PM UTC

danpalmer wrote: post #17

No insight here, but I've always wondered if the e-gates are doing anything "clever" with the camera, or if they're just connecting you to some call-centre in Swindon where your face and passport details pop up in front of someone with a lot less training than traditional border security. It might be doing facial recognition, but it feels too reliable for the level of facial recognition I expect a consultancy could p…

Post by ta1243 » Sat, May 27, 2023, 3:02 PM UTC

blibble wrote: post #33

pydry wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of UK government IT is like this and has been forever. There was a short period under the coalition where GDS was set up and they created a consistent framework for people to work with and would open a portion of the market up to smaller players. Now it's mostly large bodyshop middlemen like the prime minister's wife's company taking a 70% cut for the work of a cheap offshore developer.

a lot of the problem is the contract procurement rules, which are written so only large companies are capable of bidding a legacy of EU membership, but I doubt the government has any will to change it

Post by blibble » Sat, May 27, 2023, 3:21 PM UTC

ta1243 wrote: post #37

blibble wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

a lot of the problem is the contract procurement rules, which are written so only large companies are capable of bidding a legacy of EU membership, but I doubt the government has any will to change it

Except during the coalition things were far better with GDS, while we were in the EU, after the new-labour ppp stuff and before the tory-grift stuff.