The Home Office’s Intelligence Management System (IMS), introduced in September 2012, is used to record and process allegations from the public, stakeholders such as Crimestoppers or from Home Office Staff and assess their value in terms of combating immigration or customs offences.
The inspection carried out by the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration, John Vine, examined how effectively IMS is able to capture and record information regarding allegations and how this information is then used to inform operational activity.
Using a sample of cases, Vine's report found mixed results and concluded that whilst there has been some improvement in the way the Home Office record and respond to allegations and there were clear benefits to IMS, more needs to be done to ensure information captured is translated into appropriate and successful operational action.
Moving forwards, the chief inspector made four recommendations for improvement in his report. These included: ensuring all allegations were assessed properly and providing all intelligence staff with adequate training in handling sources.
Vine, said: “This system provides clear benefits by enabling collection and analysis of allegations to develop intelligence, inform strategy and direct operational enforcement and case working activity.
“However, I found that more could be done to improve the quality of data entry and improve case management. I was concerned to find that opportunities to prevent or identify offences may have been missed. A number of the allegations in my file sample could have been investigated but were wrongly categorised as being of no value."