The announcement was made despite the failure to implement technology required to ensure a more efficient UK service, as the former border control chief executive Lin Homer rejects claims the project is eight years behind schedule.
Sedwill made the statement before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) during a conference which looked at the Home Office’s contract with US technology and defence company Raytheon to implement its e-borders programme.
The contract was terminated by the Home Office in 2010 after it claimed the partnership failed to deliver milestones. The closure prompted a protracted legal dispute which was eventually settled out of court in March 2015.
Sedwill argued that had the contract not been terminated the department would have liked to modernise faster and build in intended capabilities still not present in the system.
He maintained: “We have had throughout this the capabilities necessary to secure the country. It's not as efficient as we like, it's not as joined up as we like, we don't have that, but we are working on it.”
PAC analysed the finding of a National Audit Office (NAO) report which found the Home Office had spent at least £830 million between 2003-15 on the e-borders programme and its successors.
It also found the department had spend over £340 million between 2006-7 and 2010-11 on the e-borders programme, a further £150 million on the settlement with Raytheon and £35 million on legal costs. Between 2011-12 and 2014-15, the Home Office spent £303m on the successor programmes.
The NAO report concluded that although the projects had delivered ‘some valuable new capabilities’ they had failed to deliver the full vision, or value for money. Committee member David Mowat MP added the report’s findings suggested 80 per cent of what was spent on e-borders project had been of no value.
Former chief executive of the UK Border Agency Lin Homer said she believed that a great deal of the proposed vision for strengthening the UK border through the programme had been delivered, adding that a significant amount of work had since continued based around the system.
Homer said: "It would not be my view that 80 per cent of what we have spent on the project over the last 12 years has been wasted. I am absolutely not suggesting I can tell you what that figure is, but I feel confident in saying it is nothing like 80 per cent wasted.
"I think the sum paid to Raytheon did not bear much value. So if you wanted to suggest that the £150 million did not carry value I would accept that."
