By Andy McCue, 25 September 2006 11:40
NEWS
The Home Office has appointed an Accenture managing partner to head up the Identity and Passport Service (IPS) and oversee the introduction of the national ID cards programme.
James Hall will take up his post as the first CEO of the newly created IPS on 11 October and will have overall responsibility for the operation and management of the agency, including the ID cards scheme.
silicon.com Public Sector
Get the latest public sector news straight to your inbox. Sign up for the PS newsletter today!
Hall has been with Accenture and its previous incarnations since 1976 and was appointed a managing partner for the UK in 1994. From 2000 he spent five years as managing partner with responsibility for technology and systems integration across Accenture and was most recently responsible for the company's £2bn contracts for the NHS IT programme.
Hall will sit on the Home Office's executive board and will report to permanent secretary Sir David Normington.
Hall joins other ex-Accenture execs to join the civil service ranks, including former UK government CIO Ian Watmore who now heads up the Prime Minister's delivery unit.
Comments
There are 7 comments. Join the discussion
1. Chris Goodman
Another astounding appointment. I would have thought that anyone at senior level who had been involved in ANY of the NHS IT programmes would be kept well away from any further public IT responsibilities. How much has the many NHS failed or unsuccessful IT plans cost the taxpayer and how much has the budgets overrun?
Here we go again!!!!!!
2. anonymous
Accenture............!!!!
NHS IT............!!!!!!
I cannot help but have a sinking feeling when the words Accenture & NHS IT are mentioned in the same article. One of "Tony's cronies", perhaps!!!!!
Accenture under there previous name did not, as I recall, cover themselves with glory. Far from it!!!!! How do these same individuals keep surfacing.?
To perhaps create more havoc, adding to the ever increasing pile of 'failed' government IT projects
3. Dan F
Awesome! This means ID Cards will never work anyway, so those of us with the brains to object don't need to worry!
4. anonymous
Do you guys even know the Accenture/NHS Story? Accenture was not responsible for the NHS delays - they were mandated by the UK govt to work with iSoft - a healthcare consultancy that caused delays in delivering the software which was going to run the systems which Accenture was going to install. Accenture took a PR hit, as well as a financial hit to stem their losses as they realized how impractical it was to work with iSoft.
you guys should really know your story before sounding off such alarms.
5. Grahame Leon-Smith
Great news ! Perhaps we shall get some progress at last. The Senior Citizens Party has always supported the introduction of ID cards to assist in the fight against crime, (especially benefit fraud), identity theft, terrorism, illegal immigration etc etc and to give people the right to prove their own identity. With biometric details they will be much more difficult to forge than traditional passports - which seem to cause no problems whatsoever for organised criminals. Virtually all other European countries have had ID cards for years without any of the paranoia constantly demonstrated by so many British people - and the media !
Let's stop wasting time and introduce them as soon as possible !
Grahame Leon-Smith, Party Leader Senior Citizens Party
6. anonymous
Freedom it seems relies on incompetence and Accenture will deliver this in abundance. So great news; it will just be a bit costly in the meantime.
Then it's just a question of how long before Accenture ‘abandons’ ID cards?
7. anonymous
Is this the same James Hall that was manager and then made partner during the Wessex RHA/Andersen Consulting work in the late 80's early 90's?