§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the abandonment of the IT system being prepared by Data Sciences for the Defence Intelligence Staff, indicating the reasons for the abandonment; what is the breakdown of the costs incurred; for what reasons an off-the-shelf system was not ordered at the time of the original decision; and what estimates were made at that time of the costs of an off-the-shelf system. [63717]
§ Mr. SpellarThe IT system referred to was selected in July 1988 following a detailed requirements survey. No off-the-shelf system was available which could meet the requirement and the rigorous security standards which were necessary. The system was abandoned in November 1996 because delays in implementing the contract and rapid changes in IT technology meant that it no longer met either the developing business needs of the Department or current health and safety standards.
653WMany valuable lessons have been learned about the acquisition and development of such a demanding system and these align closely with the principles of the Smart Procurement Initiative.
As a result of these lessons, a follow-on-system has now been put into service at a fraction of the cost using up to date commercial-off-the-shelf technology and is successfully operating on a widespread basis.
A precise breakdown of the costs incurred is not easy to establish but was around £14 million for hardware with the remainder for software development. Some E2 million were recovered from the company concerned in liquidated damages.