Collinson Grant led a programme to restructure the Intelligence Directorate and reduce costs substantially.

The UK Border Agency’s Head of Intelligence, Martin Peach, commissioned us to support his programme to broaden involvement in and responsibility for intelligence throughout the agency and to raise standards in the Intelligence Service. He also asked us to prepare a plan to reconfigure the Intelligence Directorate (ID) and align its responsibilities and resources more closely with the needs of the Agency.

We led a short but intensive review of the ID to clarify the changes required and to agree on a plan for implementing them. We also started to work with a combined team drawn from the Home Office Value for Money Unit (VfM), the ID and the UKBA’s Organisational Design and Development Unit to assist senior Intelligence Managers from all parts of the UKBA and partner agencies to design and create a cohesive framework for the Border Intelligence Service as part of the ‘Intelligence Transformation Programme’ (ITP).

The approach – including our proposed re-structuring of the ID – was signed off by the UKBA Board and launched to key people working in intelligence in UKBA and in partner agencies in May 2008. These internal and external stakeholders were engaged continuously between May and October at various workshops and as members either of the Programme Board or of one of the advisory groups. We worked closely with Martin to implement the changes to the ID, to communicate the principles that should guide intelligence work and to establish stronger internal and external networks for the Intelligence Service.

The design, development and initial implementation of the programme were completed successfully and responsibility for the continuing development of the Intelligence Service has passed to the Agency. The benefits of this work included a reduction of the ID cost base of 30%, primarily through a reduction of 70 in the staff. This was the largest example of a successful re-deployment within the UKBA to date. It will generate annualised, cashable savings of £2.5m and represents a return on external investment of over 300 per cent. It has also improved the value gained within the UKBA from the ID and has significantly enhanced wider co-operation between the UKBA and its external intelligence community.

Martin Peach believes that:

“This was a significant, longstanding challenge I was determined to address on joining the UKBA in April 2008. In reorganising and rationalising the intelligence operation, with the help of Collinson Grant, we have delivered greater savings and efficiency gains than we originally planned to. As a result we have set about further work to improve the use and flow of intelligence within the UKBA utilising Collinson Grant’s clear skill and knowledge in this sector.”