While thinking about how an ID database (see No2ID) might be designed, implemented and rolled out with a budget of £3.1bn I decided to have a look into the government's track record on IT projects.
If you find any more government IT failures out there do add them here, I suggest limiting to failures of the UK government for now as otherwise this page could quickly become unmanageable.
| May 2001, Payroll system not delivered 9 years late | |
| Company | McDonnell Douglas Information Systems |
| Department | Department of Finance and Personnel |
| Cost | £3.3m |
| http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/15/civil_service_project/ | |
| 2001, MoD Computers hacked 'at least' 48 times | |
| Company | n/a |
| Department | Ministry of Defence |
| Cost | unknown |
| http://www.vnunet.com/news/1128637 | |
| 2002, Government website hands out money to 'fraudsters' | |
| Company | Capita |
| Department | Department for Education and Skills |
| Cost | Unknown |
| http://www.computerweekly.com/Article109438.htm | |
| November 2004, 80,000 Staff Unable to process new pensions | |
| Company | Microsoft & Electronic Data Systems (EDS) |
| Department | Department for Work and Pensions |
| Cost | unknown, but the support contract costs £2bn annually |
| http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4044085.stm
http://www.publictechnology.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=2203 http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/26/dwp_network_outage/ | |
| November 2004, Police in England & Wales unable to use fingerprint system NAFIS for over a week. | |
| Company | Northrop Grumman (TRW at time of implementation) |
| Department | Police Information Technology Organisation (public-body) |
| Cost | Implementation cost £88m |
| http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/02/nafis_comms_glitch/ | |
| May 2006, 18,300 MOT testing centres disrupted by technical problems with MOT system delivered 4 years late. | |
| Company | Siemens Business Services |
| Department | Ministry of Transport |
| Cost | Implementation cost: £230m
Compensation cost: unknown |
| http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/30/pcs_slams_mot_system_delays/ | |
| August 2006, Office Staff Hack into Home Office Database | |
| Deptartment | Identity and Passport Service |
| http://blog.wired.com/sterling/index.blog?entry_id=1547911 | |
[edit]
Inland Revenue
- http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/10/11/eds_revenue_rage/
- http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/09/inland-revenue_destroys_1m_tax_records/
- http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/08/05/eds_wins_prisoner_deal/
- http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2005/04/19/inland_revenue_computers_back_to_future/
[edit]
Benefits system
- http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/04/12/dwp_research_csa/
- http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/06/22/eds_revenue_again/
[edit]
Gov computer stuff
- http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2005/07/12/homeoffice_thieves_paradise/
- http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/05/mps_openness_ogc/
- http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/06/27/id_card_costings/
- http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02/14/eds_government_probe/
Corporate identity - new scandal over ID cards Has a list of Government IT Failures.