Home Office IT project millions over budget

A Home Office IT project run by Bull Information Systems is expected to blow its budget by millions of pounds and is hampered by a restrictive contract, according to a leaked report.

The National Audit Office report, due in the Spring, is expected to reveal damning evidence that the project to implement two systems - the National Probation Service Information Systems Strategy, and the Case Record and Management System - for the probation service will cost £118m by the end of the year, 70 per cent over its original budget.

Moreover, the report - leaked to the press - states that legal advice received by the Home Office in 1999 suggested that any expansion of the existing contract was unlawful. This means that under the contract, the Home Office is unable to expand its existing data network to cope with increased traffic.

Simon Hughes, the Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, asked questions last March about the legality of the probation service contract but was told by Home Office minister Paul Boateng that it was not policy to disclose details about legal advice over purchase orders.

Mr. Hughes told vnunet.com this week that "it looks like we didn't get full answers to the questions. The government missed an opportunity to come clean about what is going on. A Parliamentary question was asked and the government hid behind a convention. We are going to ask some more questions."

The MP will call for stronger roles for select committees that oversee such matters, and further auditing powers. "It seems ridiculous that it only becomes public with the audit when everything has gone disastrously wrong," he said.

The Home Office was keeping up the atmosphere of secrecy following the leak. Bull Information Systems was ready to respond to media enquiries with a statement but later backtracked. A spokesman for Bull said the Home Office "does not feel it is appropriate to comment on the report. All calls are now being handled by them".

A Home Office spokesman said that he could not confirm the figures before the report is published, and that "it is inappropriate to comment further at this time".