HC Deb 02 December 1996 vol 286 cc488-9W
Ms Church

To ask the President of the Board of Trade, pursuant to his answer of 7 November,Official Report, column 701, what were the proposed annual savings for the information technology projects in the bands above and including £1 million to £2 million, undertaken since 1992; and what have been the realised annual savings.[6697]

Mr. John M. Taylor

[holding answer 28 November 1996]Within my Department, project appraisals consider both qualitative and quantitative benefits. Individual projects will reflect both the business priorities of the time and the Department's strategic framework for IT. Some requirements are for pilots, to trial facilities on a small scale, and there are proposals which are a matter of operational necessity—for example, remedial work for the century date change—or provide for cost avoidance, for example, in the replacement of existing IT systems where the option of a return to a manual system is impracticable.

In my answer of 7 November, Official Report, column 701, I listed 13 relevant projects. For three of these, assessment of savings is inappropriate, being either enabling projects or concerned with pilots and the sourcing official of goods and services. For the remainder, the total cumulative quantifiable savings were estimated to be £80.9 million over the years to 1999–2000 as follows:

  • Financial year
  • 1993–94: £4.2 million
  • 1994–95: £7.1 million
  • 1995–96: £9.4 million
  • 1996–97: £13.8 million
  • 1997–98: £14.8 million
  • 1998–99: £15.3 million
  • 1999–00: £16.3 million.

The realisation of such savings is one of a number of factors considered within my Department's resource bidding and allocation processes. Many of the projects are still being implemented and for most of the remainder there is no ready source of information on annual savings attributable to investment in IT systems in isolation rather than in conjunction with other measures to improve efficiency.

Actual savings recorded centrally have been:

  • Financial year
  • 1993–94: £1.4 million
  • 1994–95: £1.7 million
  • 1995–96: £5.7 million.

These are lower than previously estimated, primarily because the implementation of one major project—the Department's office system infrastructure—was delayed by one year pending availability of funds.

Ms Church

To ask the President of the Board of Trade, pursuant to his answer of 7 November,Official Report, column 701, what are the proposed annual savings for the planned information technology projects in the bands above and including £1 million to £2 million. [6696]

Mr. John M. Taylor

[holding answer 28 November 1996]In my answer of 7 November,Official Report, column 701, I identified three planned projects costing £1 million or above. Of these, the business case for one is still under development, another concerns remedial work arising from the century date change, and the third is a major enhancement to an existing system. This enhancement provides new quantifiable savings which will accrue primarily to the private sector, due to the deregulatory nature of the project, and at the same time maintains the benefits of the existing system over an extended period giving savings totalling £27 million over eight years, with the average annual saving for the remaining life of the system being estimated at £4.2 million.