HC Deb 28 November 2002 vol 395 c438W
Dr. Cable

To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how much the overspend was on the Department's new Libra IT system; what fees were paid to the consultants on the system; and if she will make a statement. [83649]

Yvette Cooper

The contract with Fujitsu Services for the delivery of Libra has been varied twice since initial completion in December 1998. This has resulted in changes to the baseline making it inappropriate to compare spend to date across an original and two variants of the contract. The actual spend against the contract can be summarised as follows:

Original ICL Contract Dec 1998

Total contracted charges expected to arise over contract life of 10.5 years— £184m

Negotiated ICL Contract May 2000

Total contracted charges expected to arise over contract life of 14.5 years—£319m

Negotiated Fujitsu Services Contract July 2002

Total contracted charges expected to arise over contract life of 8.5 years—£232m

Total contracted charges paid by 30 Sept 02—£64.8m (This is included in the £232 current contract)

In addition, the Department has spent £9.6 million on the management of the project over the same period, of which £1.4m covered consultancy costs.