Government abandons £25m IT project - Willott

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Fri 17th Jul 2009

The Cabinet Office have revealed that phase 2 of the SCOPE IT project, designed to improve collaboration between the Security and Intelligence Agencies, has been abandoned at a cost of £24.4 million.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Cabinet Office Minister, Jenny Willott said:

"This is yet another example of the Government's amazing ability to pour taxpayers' money down the drain.

"What's particularly worrying is the nature of the SCOPE programme. It is essential that security and intelligence agencies and government departments have effective systems for close collaboration.

"The Cabinet Office is supposed to be responsible for co-ordinating IT across Government. But if even they abandon major projects, this does not bode well for other departments.

"At a time when families are counting every penny, the news that millions of pounds of taxpayers' money has been blown on yet another failed Government IT project will be hard to take.

"Tessa Jowell must explain why her department did not reveal this news when I asked about it in March this year, even though they knew about it in July last year."