A sub-committee of the Work and Pensions Select Committee last week articulated the frustration many people feel about failed public sector projects.

A culture of secrecy, lack of coordination and a failure to follow proven successful practice has certainly been a common thread in many high-profile failures.

Computing has been pushing for some time for a review of the way many projects are carried out - and indeed our submissions to the committee clearly influenced their thinking.

But in one sense it's important not to get too hysterical about the findings.

The ostensible reason for the sub-committee review was the failure of the child support system which pre-dated fundamental reforms, most importantly the establishment of Gateway reviews.

It is simply not the case there have been no improvements since then. Public sector IT project leaders, for example, have got much tougher with vendors and have become considerably more realistic.

There's no reason to believe that legislation is needed at this stage for the vast majority of projects.

There is, however, a reason to be even more gloomy about government technology than the committee's collection of mid-term backbenchers imply.

The government - and particularly Home Secretary David Blunkett - have become dangerously obsessive about data-centric solutions to any social issue.

In the old days, political reaction to crime scares tended to be tough-sounding but often half-baked responses like boot camps.

Now it's to build a new database.

We believe that we have almost none of the critical elements in place to pursue such policies, and certainly not at the speed suggested.

Does the UK have the culture, the legislation or the infrastructure for such dramatic change? We think not.

Perhaps more importantly, there has been almost no debate about privacy, civil liberties, safeguards or security.

Those who have been doing most of the shouting about IT government reform are obsessive techies.

The issue is not just whether the technology works - it's why we are using it.