UK Prime Minister evaluates political rebuttal software

Number 10, Downing Street is risking the wrath of civil servants by evaluating software originally developed for electioneering.

New Labour used the system - dubbed "Excalibur" - during the last election to search a database for facts which contradict the claims of rival political parties.

However, the decision by the PM's office to consider using the system on a day-to-day has drawn concern from senior civil servants. They say the political rebuttal system - which archives policy statements for easy access - could bog them down in the wrangles of party politics, if rolled out to different ministries.

The Lotus Notes system has already been implemented by Department of Health (DOH), and Joe McCrea - former advisor to Frank Dobson - is now advising Number 10 on how to incorporate the software into their upcoming information and research capacity.

"The project is in its very, very early stages, and its full nature has not been decided," McCrea told Silicon.com. The details of Number 10's information resource are a closely guarded secret, but McCrea conceded that rebuttal would form one part of it.

Independent political analyst, Andrew Tucker, said: "If Number 10 takes this route, they'll end up with a very political system full of quotes and statements from opposing parties that they can knock down. It's what the ministers want, but the civil servants hate it, because it politicises ministerial briefings."

Romola Christopherson, former director of information at the DOH, who handled rebuttal there, said: "There was a lot of grumbling among civil servants at the DOH. I guess there probably is the feeling among some civil servants now that it's too party political.

"Number 10 is obviously looking at this in an attempt to get a consistent approach across Whitehall... but they'll find they have the same problems as we did," she told Silicon.com. Grumbles included having to assess the nature of political attacks, log them in and check facts - which are not usually within a civil servant's remit.