Tories hit out at '£2bn government IT overspend'

The Conservative Party has issued figures claiming the government has overspent by £2bn on IT upgrades over the past two years.

The figures, issued on 7 June 2005, are said by the party to represent a "massive waste of public money involved in botched Whitehall IT programmes".

Projects said to be over budget are the courts computer, which was originally due to cost £146m but is now at £400m, the GCHQ IT upgrade which rose to £450m, and the new national insurance payments system which ended up at £90m over projected costs. Other projects covered are the Inland Revenue's online tax form system, which was "pulled within hours of being launched", and the Individual Learning Accounts project, which was scrapped at a cost of £250m, the party says.

The figures were compiled from National Audit Office and parliamentary investigations into the projects.

Shadow Home Secretary David Davis linked the findings to the ID card proposals.

"The government's shambolic record on delivering technology both effectively and on budget totally undermines their claims that any ID card system would be robust," he said.

"If this system fails, not only will our security be exposed but the taxpayer will be left to pick up the bill. Taking a handful of examples, government overspend on IT projects is already nearly £2bn.

"Yet despite all this, the government refuses to address our concerns. This suggests that this is more an exercise in sounding and talking tough on their part than actually doing anything to improve our security."

Davis, who is contending for the party's leadership, was the senior conservative member behind the figures, which were first issued to the Daily Mail.