UK government claims IT success

In a progress report published this morning, McCartney claims that two thirds of the recommendations from May's White Paper 'Successful IT: Modernising Government in Action' have been met, on target for the end of year deadline.

According to McCartney, the drive towards e-government is part of a long-term process of change towards a new century of public services. "There is no overnight fix," he admitted, "but we are seeing significant improvements and progress in the way IT projects are being run."

The modernising government White Paper was deeply critical of the government's approach to information technology, and listed 30 recommendations designed to avoid IT disasters of the past.

When the White Paper was published in May, McCartney said: "There's been no clarity about the ownership of the objectives, no clarity about who was responsible for the management of the project, no clarity or sense of a system in place to deal with risk management."

Key improvements include appointing a senior responsible owner (SRO) to manage each IT project, better guidance and advice for procurement and creating a Knowledge Network project to track each stage of large projects.

Interim e-envoy Andrew Pinder has taken over responsibility for implementing the improvements from his predecessor, Alex Allan. Pinder said he was pleased with the progress being made but warned the process could not be allowed to stagnate.

Also today, McCartney will announce the creation of a new working group - dubbed Sprite - headed by the e-envoy and government IT project managers, to modernisation and change across government departments.

Sprite will be launched in the New Year

For more about 'Successful IT: Modernising Government in Action', visit http://www.citu.gov.uk/itprojectsreview.htm