IT security crisis hastened death of government training scheme

An IT security crisis was a key factor in the abrupt end of the government's Individual Learning Accounts (ILA) training scheme last November, it emerged this morning.

At the time silicon.com revealed that the scheme was open to abuse as bogus training companies were able to to claim money to train non-existent pupils (http://www.silicon.com/a49462 ).

But today's revelations show that the problems ran even deeper than this.

West Midland Police and the National Audit Office have launched an enquiry after confidential data - which could have been used to make false claims - was exposed.

The ILA systems were outsourced to services company Capita, a FTSE100 firm that has also won contracts for TV licence fee payment and future congestion charging in London, among others.

However, a spokeswoman for Capita told The Financial Times there had been no unauthorised access to ILA systems. Instead, she reportedly said: "A limited number of users may have abused their authorised access and acted in an inappropriate manner. Such behaviour could be viewed as a breach of trust."

John Healey, the minister overseeing the ILA scheme, has confirmed the government saw the breach as an immediate threat. According to the Financial Times, one trainer presented him with a floppy disk containing personal details of 1,000 account holders, meaning there was the potential for unscrupulous trainers to make claims against the government's £260m budget for training that would never be given.

There had been some criticism of the ILA set up for a number of months but its closure on 23 November 2001 by Health Secretary Estelle Morris was viewed as unexpectedly sudden.