§ Mr. CousinsTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if implementation milestones have been agreed for the rollout of the NIRS2 project; if those milestones have been revised; and on what dates, and in respect of what sums, penalty payments have been incurred by the NIRS2 project manager. [111670]
§ Mr. TimmsImplementation milestones were agreed for the NIRS2 project when the Private Finance Initiative contract was awarded in May 1995.
The original implementation date for the first NIRS2 Release was on 10 February 1997. In July 1996 this milestone was revised to allow the first release to be phased in over three stages between 10 February and 5 April 1998. Subsequent releases, that have introduced changes to the system, have been successfully delivered and on time.
The supplier, Andersen Consulting, has made compensation payments for the revised implementation strategy of £4.1 million.
§ Mr. CousinsTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the payments made for the commissioning of the NIRS2 project and the dates on which payments were made; and what further programme of payments to commission NIRS2 has been agreed. [111669]
986W
§ Mr. TimmsThe table shows the payments made to Andersen Consulting for the work commissioned from them during the NIRS2 project. The payments cover both the provisions of the NIRS2 service and changes that have been made to the system.
£ million Period The following invoiced charges were due: April 1995 to March 1996 0.139 April 1996 to March 1997 0.586 April 1997 to March 1998 1.118 April 1998 to March 1999 5.876 April 1999 to January 2000 11.726 Total 19.445 Various credits were deducted from the above totaling 6.347 Net total 13.098 Future payments are estimated as follows: February 2000 to March 2000 6.976 April 2000 to March 2001 9.990 April 2001 to March 2002 8.170 April 2002 to March 2003 8.640 April 2003 to March 2004 10.950