Government IT gets 'unfair' kicking

The former head of the Office of Government Commerce has told a parliamentary committee that, contrary to the impression often created by the media, the UK public sector is running successful IT projects.

Sir Peter Gershon said that such projects are quietly delivering greater efficiency across the public sector, despite the enormous publicity given to failures. He was speaking to the Public Administration Select Committee hearing on 3 February, 2005.

Gershon's independent review of public sector efficiency focuses on new technology to deliver streamlined services and cut paperwork. But he was challenged on how he could be sure that IT projects are going to be managed successfully so that savings can be made.

Committee member Anne Campbell asked him: "We have seen a number of total disasters as far as IT projects are concerned. In fact, I wonder whether there are any successful IT projects within government." She cited the Child Support Agency's IT system as the biggest failure of all.

Gershon said examples of success could be found in the rollout of new technology in JobCentre Plus, Customs and Excise undertaking one of the most complex IT projects in the world, and the development of NHS Direct.

"Not a dickie bird" was heard about success of the Department of Work and Pensions complex project to enable benefit and pensions payments into bank accounts, he said.

Extensive research done on US government IT projects found that the average success rate is 30 per cent - measured against whether they came in on time, to budget and did what was promised, according to Gershon. He said there is nothing that indicates that the UK public sector has a worse success rate than other UK sectors, or the public sector in the US and other countries.

"There are lots of IT success stories in government. It's just that we live in a country where the press basically only writes about failures and never writes about success. Success doesn't sell newspapers in this country," said Gershon.

He acknowledged, however, that the government still had to improve its success rate. The most risky way of introducing a new IT project is through "big bang" implementation - tax credits and the Criminal Records Bureau being examples of this. But he told the committee that congestion charging, despite teething problems, was both a "big bang" project and a massive success.

Gershon told the committee that, to ensure greater success in the future, the people responsible for delivery of IT projects must have more influence with policy makers, so that they are fully aware of the risks.