The prime minister faced questions in the House of
Commons last week on two of the government's major IT-related
programmes.
Menzies Campbell, acting leader of the Liberal Democrats, asked
Tony Blair about a reported three-year delay on the Impact
(Intelligence Management, Prioritisation, Analysis, Co-ordination
and Tasking) programme to help police forces across the UK share
intelligence information.
The Home Office's Police IT Organisation was involved in setting
up the Impact programme after the Bichard Inquiry into the murder
of schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in 2003.
Officials have found that Impact is proving more complex to
deliver than first thought. And IT suppliers' trade association
Intellect last week expressed concerns about delays.
In the Commons, Campbell asked Blair when he expected Impact to
be fully functional. Blair said he was unable to answer the
question "off the cuff", but undertook to write to Campbell.
This answer prompted Richard Bacon, a member of the Public
Accounts Committee, to question whether the technology supporting
ID cards would work.
Bacon said, "The prime minister could not explain the reasons
for the police computer delay in answer to an earlier question.
Why, then, should we believe what he says about identity cards,
given that they are above all else a government computer
project?"
When Blair did not answer the question directly and instead gave
a justification of ID cards, Bacon interrupted. "What about the
computer project?" A chorus of MPs called on Blair to answer
Bacon's question.
Blair replied, "On the subject of computer technology, let me
say that it is not as if, in respect of either passports or
identity throughout the Western world, there are not well-tried
systems for identity cards."
He accused the Conservatives of "raising issues related to
computer technology as a smokescreen for their true opposition" to
ID cards.
Afterwards, Bacon said that Blair's response raised questions
about why the UK was not seeking to buy systems used in other
countries.