Fujitsu loses Libra software contract

The government has torn up its agreement with Fujitsu Services to provide magistrates' courts with case management software after "serious concerns" arose about delays and spiralling costs.

The Lord Chancellor's Department (LCD) has concluded that it could get "robust, tried and tested" software cheaper than Fujitsu Services could deliver.

"It has not proved possible to reach an agreement on the specialised software at an acceptable price," Yvonne Cooper, parliamentary secretary at the LCD, told the House of Commons.

Project Libra was to have combined office infrastructure and a new casework system linking magistrates' courts.

The renegotiated contract sees Fujitsu Services lose the software element of the project, and the length of the contract has been drastically shortened.

Fujitsu Services won the initial contract in 1998, after two other interested parties dropped out. It was to have supplied the software and hardware for the Libra project until 2009 in a deal worth £183m.

Renegotiations in 2000 saw the contract value nearly double, and would have extended the deal's length by four years. But the LCD began to have doubts over Fujitsu's ability to deliver value for money.

"Serious concerns arose last year when delays in delivery of software and increases in their costs led to Fujitsu Services to seek to renegotiate," said Cooper.

A spokesman for Fujitsu Services said it was inevitable that when buyers changedthe project specifications, re-evaluation of the contract was necessary to cover any increases in costs. In such circumstances buyers could withdraw from agreements, he added.

He would not be drawn on the specifics of the Project Libra case.

The contract case management software will now go out to tender. An LCD spokesman said that he hoped the software would operational "by end of 2004".

The software was to have enabled the sharing of information between law enforcement agencies, as well as supporting case-tracking and fine-collection.