End of the road for NPfIT?

With the election results in and the dust finally settling, the implications for the future of government IT projects are far from certain.

With the Conservatives currently hammering out some kind of coalition deal with the Lib Dems, the likelihood of Labour and its large scale flagship IT programs remaining in their current form is rapidly receding.

The National Programme for IT - the sprawling, massively over budget and long overdue electronic patient care records project - has long been derided by the Tories in its current form and now one of its key backers, health minister Mike O'Brien, has lost his seat.

O'Brien had held the safe Labour seat of Warwickshire North and Bedworth since 1992 but lost by just 54 votes with a 7.7 per cent swing to Conservative Dan Byles. As health minister he was directly responsible for the NPfIT, an initiative unlikely to remain in its present form given the Tories' desire to decentralise the system and hand more control over to patients.

Other Labour ministers lived to fight another day, however, and could yet return in any future Labour government. Key among these is Stephen Timms, who headed up the controversial Digital Britain policy initiative.

Timms held on to the renamed East Ham seat with a massive 70 per cent of the popular vote.

As for the other Labour projects with a suddenly uncertain future, Tory leader David Cameron made it clear on Friday that the national ID card scheme would be scrapped under any deal with the Lib Dems.

09 May 2010