Labour politicians at the annual conference this week admitted
the party has run into "considerable problems" with major IT
programmes and policy over the past 10 years.
MPs said the government has found procurement, project
management and specifying what it wants from IT challenging. But
they say things are starting to improve as the IT industry
continues to strengthen its links and relationship with
government.
Former home secretary Charles Clarke said Labour has experienced
"all kinds of problems" since coming into power in 1997.
"The potential of IT, whether it is
individual records in the NHS or
ID cards, is enormous understanding it and how to procure it is
very difficult," he said.
"I would say, to the credit of the government, that it has tried
to see the potential of IT, and tried to use it. But in so doing,
it has run into all kinds of problems. What is needed is a stronger
partnership between the IT industry and government, and I do think
it is changing now."
But it is still not clear whether huge IT projects like the NHS
Programme for IT can be delivered successfully, said Blackpool
South MP Gordon Marsden. "There is a real issue for any government
of whether major initiatives like the NHS computer system are
capable of being delivered in a 'big bang' process, and what the
implications are for that for future procurement programmes.
"There is a big question mark about how able we are to deliver
this major initiative from a government perspective. The jury is
still out on that," he said.
In the early days of government IT procurement, there was not
enough in-house assessment of big bids from outside contractors,
said Marsden. "As IT projects have got bigger, more ambitious and
more complex, the need for internal government monitoring becomes
more essential. In the early days, it was very difficult for the
civil service to cope with that and get advice from outside. That
has contributed to some of the problems. Things have now got a lot
better."
Jim Knight, minister of state for schools, said the UK is a
"world leader" in the application of technology to education, with
equipment such as interactive whiteboards transforming the way
children are taught.
He said, "There has been a huge expansion in the use of IT in
the curriculum, and we are now starting to see much more creativity
in the use of technology."
But the adoption of IT in other areas of government has not been
so trouble-free, Knight said. "Both the public and the private
sectors have had quite considerable problems with major IT
procurement projects at times.
"Some are related to experience with project management in the
area some are related to the scale of the project some to the
rapidly changing nature of the technology. Some are related to
changing specifications. IT is a rapidly changing area. Even if you
buy a computer at home, you are balancing up whether you should
wait for the next-generation of technology or whether you should
buy it now - it is difficult."
Becky Hogge, executive director of the Open Rights Group, which
campaigns on technology-related issues, said this government is the
first to have presided over a digital age. She said, "Some of the
things they are doing will work well, and they have a good record
on intellectual property rights."
But the government's record on big IT programmes has not been so
successful, she said. "They have learnt why ministers make
incredibly bad project managers for computer projects. You cannot
set the specifications for an IT project if you do not know what it
is for.
"The government has been guilty of trying to solve social
problems with technical solutions. That does not work."
Hogge added that, so far, the government has "got it wrong on
personal data".
She said, "They do not respect that people's data belongs to
them. They have still got an opportunity to get it right they could
turn it around by understanding the importance of data
privacy."
The UK has also not embraced open source technology as
enthusiastically as mainland Europe, Hogge said, "Tony Blair had
two special relationships: one with George Bush, and the other with
Bill Gates. Questions have been raised about that relationship, and
I think rightly so."
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