To gain an understanding of the factors influencing key decisions at the Agency leading up to the crisis, we conducted semi-structured interviews with members of the Agency's Management Board - including senior managers responsible for overseeing the computerisation. We also interviewed the statistician at the Home Office responsible for forecasting passports and examined forecast data.
We interviewed senior managers at Siemens and consulted senior managers at Security Printing & Systems Ltd and representatives from the Public and Commercial Services Union.
We visited the Liverpool, Newport and Peterborough offices. Interviews were held with regional management teams. We discussed the operation of the new system with operational staff in each office and observed each stage in action.