Case Study
HM Passport Office
Modernising passport processing with a secure hybrid cloud
Black Dog Labs helped HM Passport Office bridge MS Dynamics and AWS, ship an ML-based document scan quality tool, and rebuild its technical architecture and IT strategy from the ground up.
Tech stack
Black Dog Labs was part of the delivery team, alongside Kainos and Equal Experts, that modernised HM Passport Office’s technical foundations: a legacy ERP system, an inconsistent document scanning process, and an undocumented architecture, all while operating under GCHQ guidance for handling highly sensitive citizen data.
The challenge
HM Passport Office needed to modernise systems that process passport applications for the whole of the UK, without compromising the security bar that sensitive citizen data demands.
A legacy ERP system holding back modernisation
Core business processes ran on an ageing ERP platform that made it difficult to introduce new tooling or scale to demand.
Unreliable document scanning and a history of stalled AI projects
Passport applications rely on scanned documents, but scan quality was inconsistent, and previous attempts to apply AI to the problem had not delivered a working solution.
Undocumented architecture with no clear IT strategy
Technical decisions had not been recorded over the years, leaving the organisation without a shared reference for its own systems or a plan for what came next.
Every workstream also had to satisfy a strict security and regulatory bar: passport data falls under GCHQ guidance as highly sensitive information, so security and compliance considerations shaped every architectural decision rather than being treated as a separate concern.
The solution
The engineering effort was split into three tracks: a hybrid cloud platform, a machine-learning tool for document scan quality, and an architecture and governance practice to give the organisation a documented, secure-by-design foundation going forward.
Track 1
A secure hybrid cloud bridging MS Dynamics and AWS
Black Dog Labs advised on and built a hybrid cloud solution connecting MS Dynamics to AWS data storage, supporting HM Passport Office's business lines without a disruptive full migration.
- Microservices running on Kubernetes
- AWS RDS for managed data storage
- Authentication and authorization built in from the start
Track 2
An ML-based document scan quality tool
A data quality tool assesses scanned documents as they come in, using machine learning to score outliers and flag scans that need attention, rather than relying on manual review alone.
- Built on OpenCV for image analysis
- Outlier scoring to prioritise manual review
Track 3
Documented architecture and a secure-by-design IT strategy
The team modelled the architecture using C4 diagrams and documented every significant decision, building supplier buy-in across the organisation's technical stakeholders and giving HM Passport Office a shared reference it didn't have before.
- C4 architecture modelling
- Documented decision records
- Secure-by-design principles throughout
The outcome
The programme HM Passport Office delivered went on to win Public Sector Project of the Year and Development Team of the Year at the 2024 UK IT Industry Awards. 1 The platform supports the processing of around 6 million passports a year, delivered in collaboration with Kainos and Equal Experts.
Attribution: Black Dog Labs was part of the delivery team alongside Kainos and Equal Experts. The awards and the 6 million passports/year figure describe the overall HM Passport Office programme, not a Black Dog Labs–only claim.
About Black Dog Labs
Black Dog Labs designs and builds AI and cloud solutions for organisations operating in complex, high-security environments. For HM Passport Office, we worked alongside the wider delivery team to modernise the technical foundation behind a service the whole of the UK relies on.
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