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back to article Home Office wins appeal against £224m e-Borders payout

The UK Home Office has won an appeal against US defence giant Raytheon to award the company £224m after cancelling its £750m e-Borders contract. The company was engaged by the Home Office in 2007 to design the e-Borders technology system. However, by 2010 the Home Office had terminated the contract on that grounds that key …

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  1. arrbee
    Holmes

    Does this mean that the government appealed an arbitration ruling to the courts on the grounds that although the arbitration procedure was agreed between the two parties involved it still had to be performed in accordance with UK law, i.e. the Arbitration Act ?

    No wonder the new transatlantic trade deal is so popular in some quarters.

    1 0 Reply
  2. James 51

    With TTIP it could mean foreign companies failing their way to the bank. The company will probably make more profit if it wins than if it had completed the contract.

    7 0 Reply
    1. Roland6 Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: TTIP

      In this case TTIP would of most probably meant the UK government couldn't legally challenge the decision of the confidential arbitration process...

      3 0 Reply
  3. Efros

    Raytheon... spit.

    I worked for an independent software house who did a shit ton of work for those buggers and had all sorts of problems getting any cash out of them. An email archive saved the day.

    8 0 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Raytheon... spit.

      Raytheon massively underbid on bad specs. Now this might seem an obvious ploy but I was working for a major multinational at the time and even our sales people sharks to the man/woman with an eye to their bonuses admitted it was a no go.

      Not sure who to blame more - Raytheon or HMG

      3 0 Reply
  4. A Non e-mouse Silver badge

    And once this is all over, how much will have been spent on lawyers fees?

    3 0 Reply
  5. JaitcH
    FAIL

    It's about time the UK Government recovered funds from ...

    breached contracts. They should do what the U.S. does - put them on a shit list so they don't get further contracts..

    The NHS are the most glaring examples of failed contracts and no doubt the War Ministry/Ministry of Offence has a longer list of failures.

    3 0 Reply
  6. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    WTF?

    Shock new. UK Govt dept writes contract with *penalty* clauses in.

    I'm not sure my heart can stand the strain,

    Perhaps they might do this more often.

    2 0 Reply
  7. Jimmy2Cows Silver badge

    The balls on Raytheon...

    ...to screw up so badly our gov cancels a contract and still demand termination charges.

    Given the shit gov.uk battles to carry on with despite ongoing monumental cockups, this one must have been a fucking disaster.

    1 0 Reply
    1. John Smith 19 Gold badge
      Reply Icon
      Unhappy

      Re: The balls on Raytheon...

      "...to screw up so badly our gov cancels a contract and still demand termination charges."

      Your forgetting that Raytheon is a US Govt con-tractor.

      The USG (I think this is unique in the developed world) can unilaterally any contract with no notice and no payment.

      Anyone who actually follows their contract is viewed as a soft touch relative to that.

      0 0 Reply
      1. What_Does_Not_Kill_You_Makes_You_Stronger
        Reply Icon
        Flame

        Re: The balls on Raytheon...

        If the USG can kill a contract with no notice or payment, why cannot the UKG negotiate to at least have some penalties.

        The UKG seems to be incapable of negotiating a contrract at reasonable rates with meaningful penalty clauses for late delivery or substantial quality shortfalls.

        This is particularly true of IT contracts where the same companies win the contracts and deliver 'sub-standard tat' years late for at least 3x the original price.

        This is accepted like every other time and they are still allowed to tender for future work as if they are the best companies going.

        No smaller companies could get away with this.

        No customer of mine would accept this on any contract no matter the size.

        Yet at government level the lowest level of common sense or commercial nouse is missing.

        They are so gullible, I do wonder how many 'Brooklyn Bridges' and 'Eiffel Towers' they have bought, in the past ?

        0 0 Reply

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