Helios: Strengthening the heart of Border Security

In 2025, 302 million passengers passed through the UK via airports alone. Tourists, students, workers, migrants and those seeking asylum – the vast majority were those who either wanted to visit for a short time or were permitted to stay, without posing any level of safety or security threat. However, among those there is a small but critical number who work against national interests and security. Identifying them amid the growing volume of data is a huge challenge. 

To meet this challenge, the Home Office required more than a technology refresh. It needed a new platform capable of bringing together information from multiple areas, processing vast volumes of data, enabling rapid search and verification, as well as supporting operational decision-making at scale. 

The result was Helios, a next generation watchlisting service that has strengthened the nation’s ability to identify threats whilst simultaneously improving the experience of legitimate travellers.

In the autumn of 2024, a dedicated, innovative and agile cutover process yielded the launch of the Helios Watchlisting Service.

While the go-live represented a critical milestone, it was the culmination of a multi-year transformation programme that changed the core of the UK border.

The remit was clear: conduct a heart transplant on a 30-year-old system while ensuring the nationally critical operation it sustained continued to beat without interruption.

Beyond replacing ageing technology, the programme aimed to remove barriers to data sharing, improve operational decision-making and create a scalable platform capable of supporting evolving threats and growing passenger volumes.

At its core, Helios delivers advanced data-processing capabilities that transform complex, disparate data sources into a standardised dataset. Automated data cleansing and standardisation improve consistency and accuracy, while scalable solutions support the processing of millions of passengers.

The platform also introduced enhanced matching capabilities helping to improve the flow of passengers at the border and ultimately improve the experience of individuals entering the UK.

The task was anything but simple. It has been described as the IT equivalent of performing a heart transplant on a patient who needs to be awake and functioning during the procedure. Officers needed to keep serving travellers throughout the operation, while the team carefully disconnected, replaced, and reconnected critical systems with minimal disruption. The specialist team gave a vital Home Office function a new lease of life in just 14-hours.

Split into 10 phases across the 14-hour cutover, the process included data loading, the deployment of microservices, enabling border applications, deploying the new user interface, enabling daily ingest feeds, and scaling to full functionality before the 3am deadline.

And, pivotally, every phase was planned and designed to give the Home Office distinct contingency strategies, where – at set increments – they could roll back safely to the previous state and leave the UK border operating exactly as it had the day before. 

This meant that go-live decisions were driven by operational priorities and risk appetite, not technical limitations.

The successful cutover demonstrated the strength of the programme’s architecture, delivery approach and stakeholder collaboration. It ensured that a significant national  service could transition to a modern platform while maintaining operational continuity and border security throughout. 

The key challenge posed to the cutover team was to innovate and transform a legacy system and process, while still relying on said system right up to and during launch. 

To establish the clear communication and strong collaboration needed to achieve a quick and smooth overhaul, we instilled behaviours that built trust, encouraged transparency and enabled proactivity throughout the programme lifecycle.

Game changing features of the team dynamic included:

• Converting technical complexity into clear, decision-focused insights (often in visual formats)

• Rehearsing releases and rollbacks ahead of the real cutover

• Briefing front-line officers and operational stakeholders throughout delivery

This collaborative approach extended far beyond the technical implementation. Teams from across government and industry worked together to define operational requirements, establish frameworks, design workflows, support training and ensure that technology, people and processes evolved together. 

The value of this approach was clear:

• System availability to front-line officers was assured for 98% of the 14-hour release window
• Border movements continued smoothly and successfully without any additional risk to national security 
• Operational control for the Home Office was delivered throughout the 14-hour period

With the transformation successfully delivered, the team can look back at Helios as a model for future national infrastructure programmes. 

Since late 2024, Helios has been working behind the scenes to protect the border and identify those needles in the haystack – the small minority of travellers who present a risk to national interests and security. 

The programme has delivered benefits across three key areas: data processing, data search and verification, and national infrastructure protection. With faster access to trusted information, operational teams can make more informed decisions when it matters most. 

Decision making isn’t the only benefit. Since launch, Helios has improved passenger flow, reduced unnecessary delays for tens of thousands of passengers each year, strengthened security, and provided stability.

The system has reduced the need for unnecessary checks by front-line officers, and this has improved efficiency, speed, accuracy and reliability, critically operating 24/7 all with no outages reported in its first year of operation.

Meanwhile, Helios’ integration with domestic and international partners has elevated levels of communication and proactivity across the entire border security journey. This passenger journey spans visa applications, check-in and the physical border.

As a result, Helios is not only a gamechanger for border security but is now shared across the Home Office and HM Government as an example of best practice for delivering complex digital change at national scale.

The programme demonstrates how government and industry can work together to modernise complex national capabilities, delivering immediate operational benefits while establishing a foundation for future innovation. Helios has enhanced security, improved efficiency, enabled more effective decision-making and strengthened the resilience of a critical national service.