Transparency data

Passport Transformation Programme: SRO appointment letter for Janine Bonnick, March 2025

Updated 19 June 2025

To:       Janine Bonnick, Senior Responsible Owner for the Passport Transformation Programme

From:   Dame Antonia Romeo, Permanent Secretary of Home Office; and Karina Singh karina.singh@ipa.gov.uk Director, Function, Insight & Professions

31 March 2025

Dear Janine,

APPOINTMENT AS SENIOR RESPONSIBLE OWNER FOR THE PASSPORT TRANSFORMATION PROGRAMME

We are writing to confirm your appointment as Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) of the Passport Transformation Programme with effect from 31 March 2025. This letter sets out your responsibilities and the support you can expect from your department and the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority.

As SRO, you are directly accountable to Joanna Rowland, under the oversight of the Permanent Secretary as accounting officer for the Home Office, and The Secretary of State for the Home Department.

Your Programme forms part of the Home Office Portfolio, under the oversight of the Investment Committee (InvestCo) and is included in the Government Major Projects Portfolio (GMPP).

You have personal responsibility for the delivery of the Passport Transformation Programme and will be held accountable for the delivery of its objectives, policy intent and outcomes. This encompasses securing and protecting its vision, ensuring that it is governed responsibly, reported on honestly, escalated appropriately and for influencing the context, culture, and operating environment of the programme. You are also responsible for ensuring the ongoing viability of the programme and recommending its pause or termination if appropriate. Where issues arise which, you are unable to resolve, you are responsible for escalating these to InvestCo and/or other Home Office governance bodies as appropriate to the resolution of those issues.

You remain accountable to Ministers, as set out in the Civil Service Code, and should deliver the project in accordance with the objectives and policy intent as set by Ministers.

In addition to your internal accountabilities, SROs for GMPP projects and programmes are personally accountable to Parliamentary Select Committees. This means that, from the date of this letter, you will be held personally accountable to and could be called by Select Committees to account for and explain the decisions and actions you have taken to deliver the Passport Transformation Programme.

It is important to be clear that your accountability relates only to implementation, within the agreed terms in this letter; it will remain for the Minister to account for the relevant policy decisions and development.

More information on this is set out in Giving Evidence to Select Committees - Guidance for Civil Servants, sometimes known as the Osmotherly Rules. Information on the roles and responsibilities of the SRO are detailed in Government Project Delivery’s guidance on the role of the senior responsible owner,

You are expected to run your project/programme in accordance with the Government Functional Standard for Project Delivery, and the requirements of other functional standards as required, which is mandated for government departments and arm’s length bodies to follow. You should also make yourself familiar with The Teal Book, Government Project Delivery’s code of practice for project delivery, and any further guidance and requirements set by Home Office Project Delivery Framework.

Time commitment and tenure

You will undertake this SRO role alongside your other responsibilities as Head of Passport Operations within Customer Services.  This has previously been a key stakeholder and customer relationship within the Programme.  You must allocate sufficient time to fulfil the responsibilities that being an SRO entails. It is recognised that you will not be able to meet the expected 50% of your time on this role, this will be managed within the department and programme and recognised as low risk due to the current position and progress of the programme.

You are required to undertake this role until achievement of all objectives, planned by 31 July 2025. Progress towards this will be reflected in your personal objectives. Any changes to the agreed time commitment or tenure of the role, as set out above, will require both departmental and National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority consent.

Objectives and performance criteria

The policy intent supported by this programme is ODP3 Legal migration and the border.  A fundamental role of the migration and borders system is to enable increasing volumes of travellers to secure permission to travel to the UK and cross the border – while maintaining the UK’s national security – and stay for the period they are entitled to.  The programme specifically supports sub-outcome 5: Facilitate the issue of passports, citizenship and provide identity and status services.

Any proposed changes to scope which impacts on this intent or the realisation of benefits must be authorised by InvestCo and may be subject to further levels of approval.

The vision of the programme is to deliver modernisation, automation and digitisation of the passport service and its objectives are to:

• Complete the build of His Majesty’s Passport Office (HMPO) Digital Application Processing system so it processes 100% of application types.  COMPLETED
• Efficient and paperless back office driven by the Scanning, Validation and Storage (SVS) solution: COMPLETED
• Complete deployment of Prysm, HMPO’s new Business Intelligence system, that allows us to report upon and manage the operational business: COMPLETED
• Complete replacement of the Fraud Management Information (FMI) system with a new system, Optic, integrated into DAP: COMPLETED
• Complete replacement of the legacy support Main Index (the record of all historic and current passports issued) with HMPO’s own in-house solution called Passport Data Services (involving and new platform, Terminal Repository, and database).
• Successful exit from legacy contracts.

Your personal objectives and performance criteria which relate to the programme are:

• Complete the successful drain-down of legacy systems by 11 April 2025 using the digital solution developed for the safe transfer of cases from legacy system to the new DAP system.
• Complete the Passport Data Services replacement and new platform by the end of April 2025
• Ensure safe exit from Sopra Steria by 30 April 2025
• Provide notice to legacy suppliers by 30 April 2025, signalling the full decommissioning process.  Exit to be completed by 31 July 2025
• Oversee Programme Closure, including relevant governance and assurance activities.

Extent and limit of accountability

Finance and Controls

HM Treasury spending controls will apply on the basis set out within the department’s delegated authority letter. Where the Programme exceeds the delegated authority set by HM Treasury, the Treasury Approval Point process will apply, and the details of each approval process must be agreed with your HM Treasury spending team. You should consult departmental finance colleagues on how to go about this.

You should note that where expenditure is considered novel, contentious, repercussive, or likely to result in costs to other parts of the public sector, HM Treasury approval will be required, regardless of whether the programme expenditure exceeds the delegated authority set by HM Treasury. If in doubt about whether approval is required you should, in the first instance, consult departmental finance colleagues before raising with the relevant HM Treasury spending team.

The overall estimated budget, resourcing requirements and tolerances for your project/programme will be agreed as part of the approval process. You will be expected to deliver within these tolerances and report quarterly on these as part of GMPP reporting.

You should operate at all times within the rules set out in Managing Public Money. In addition, you must be mindful of, and act in accordance with, the specific HM Treasury delegated limits and Cabinet Office controls relevant to Passport Transformation Programme Information on these controls can be found here: Cabinet Office controls.

Delegated authority

You are authorised to:

• Approve forecast expenditure of up to £62.64m (RDEL £41.38 – CDEL £21.26) for FY 25/26;
• Agree project rescheduling within 29 days of agreed milestones, but rescheduling beyond that (30 days plus) must be agreed with InvestCo; and
• Recommend to InvestCo the need to either pause or terminate the programme where necessary and in a timely manner.

These authority limits are subject to change and other conditions or tolerances may be set as part of the business case approval and ongoing monitoring processes which you should then operate within.

Where issues arise which take you outside of these authority limits which you are unable to resolve, you are responsible for escalating these issues to the business owner, Joanna Rowland DG Customer Services and InvestCo.

Appointments

A full time Programme Director, Sarah Ormerod has already been appointed within the Programme and will continue to oversee this position.  You can make additional appointments as required for the control and delivery of your programme within your delegated authority.  

Governance and assurance

You should pay attention to ensuring effective governance for your programme, including the establishment of a programme board with appropriate membership and clear terms of reference.

As primary owner, you must ensure that the programme secures business case approval from InvestCo including CO and HMT. You should also ensure that the programme remains aligned to the strategic outcomes, costs, timescales, and benefits in line with the approved business case as well as monitoring the context within which the programme is being delivered to ensure it remains valid.

Where a change impacts the scope, costs, benefits, or planned delivery milestones agreed as part of an agreed business case, you are responsible for following the agreed change request approval process and setting a new, approved, business case baseline.

You should ensure that an accounting officer assessment is completed alongside the approval of the Outline Business Case and that this is published on GOV.UK as part of the government’s transparency requirements on major projects. You are responsible for bringing to the attention of the accounting officer any material changes in the programme which could require a new accounting officer assessment to be completed and published. Guidance on completing accounting officer assessments for major projects is available from HM Treasury.

You are responsible for providing assurance to the accounting officer and relevant oversight bodies that the Environmental Principles Policy Statement legal duty has been considered by ministers in policy decision underpinning the programme.

Although you are directly accountable for this programme, you are also expected to support delivery of the department’s overall strategic objectives. This means that you are expected to work collaboratively with other SROs and project directors in adjacent projects and programmes and with the Home Office Portfolio management office and portfolio director to manage dependencies, resources, schedules, and funding to support delivery of the overall change the department needs to achieve its strategic objectives.

You should ensure that appropriate and proportionate assurance is in place and agree on the level and frequency of assurance reviews through the maintenance of an integrated assurance and approvals plan. You should develop this plan and its maintenance in collaboration with the Departmental Assurance Coordinator and the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority.

Passport Transformation Programme status, reporting and transparency requirements

The programme status at the date of your appointment is reflected in the most recent quarterly return on the programme to the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority and is the agreed position as you assume formal ownership of the programme.

You are responsible for ensuring the honest and timely reporting on the position of the programme to the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority while it remains on the GMPP and for providing reports and information to the Home Office portfolio management office as required. Reporting should include carbon measurement, and other sustainable development goals demonstrating evidence that the project contributes to an overarching environmental strategy and is aligned with defined Net Zero pathways. Information on the programme will be published annually by the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority.

As part of the government’s commitment to transparency on major infrastructure projects, you are responsible for publishing on GOV.UK:

• A summary of the accounting officer assessment completed in line with the approval of the Outline Business Case and summaries of any subsequent assessments should they be required;
• A summary of the HM Treasury approved Full Business Case; and
• A close out report after the programme has completed.

You are also responsible for registering all planned, live and completed evaluations on the Government Evaluation Registry. Guidance on using the evaluation registry is available on GOV.UK.

Development and support

As SRO of a GMPP programme, you are required to complete the Major Projects Leadership Academy, and you have agreed to enrol on a cohort in the near future. The Head of Profession in Home Office can provide further information on the application process.

To widen experience and understanding of the role, SROs are also expected to become accredited assurance reviewers and to lead or participate in such reviews for other government departments, the wider public sector, and other areas of the Home Office as appropriate. Becoming an assurance reviewer and completing a review will form part of your time at the Major Projects Leadership Academy. To maintain your accreditation, you will be required to participate in a review at least once every 12 months.

The department will assist you in securing the necessary resources to support the programme, and will set clear guidance, requirements and standards, which align to the Government Functional Standard on Project Delivery, to enable good governance and effective delivery. You will be part of the department’s cohort of major project leaders who will be expected to support each other, share good practice and lessons learned and to collectively develop solutions. You should liaise with the department’s Head of Profession for project delivery to discuss the maintenance and development of your delivery and leadership skills.

The National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority will be available to you for support, advice, and assurance throughout the programmes time on the GMPP.

Following approval of the business case and entry onto the Home Office Portfolio, InvestCo will provide ongoing oversight and support and will take steps to help resolve and escalate risks, issues or constraints that are acting as a blocker to successful delivery.

We would like to take this opportunity to wish you every success in your role as SRO.

Yours sincerely,

Simon Ridley, Second Permanent Secretary, Home Office

Karina Singh karina.singh@ipa.gov.uk, Director, Function, Insight & Professions National Infrastructure & Service Transformation Authority

CONFIRMATION OF ACCEPTANCE OF APPOINTMENT

I confirm that I accept the appointment of Senior Responsible Owner for the Passports Transformation Programme, including my personal accountability for implementation, as set out in the letter above.

Janine Bonnick

3 June 2025