The top-secret multimillion-pound Scope project to share intelligence data between government security agencies is at least 50 per cent over budget, according to MPs.

Delays and project management issues have come to light through investigations by the Cabinet Office Intelligence and Security Committee.

The committee has revealed the project is three years late, problems have been encountered costing several hundred million pounds, and the management team in charge has been changed.

?The project will now deliver less capability than previously planned and will cost at least 50 per cent more than originally estimated,? says the report. Once the system goes live it will pull together information held by nine different branches of government, including the Home Office, the Foreign Office, MI5 and MI6 (Computing, 29 May 2003).

The system was originally due to be up and running by 2004, but is now not expected to be completed before the end of 2007.

?Scope is now over three years late but the delay has allowed a significantly more robust programme, with better risk management, to be developed,? says the report.

?However, the committee remains concerned that Scope has yet to deliver any usable benefits to the UK intelligence community as a whole.?

The MPs gave no firm indication of the nature of the problems, but suggest they have occurred because of a lack of management capability to handle major IT projects.

They are ?concerned that the Security Service does not yet have sufficient project managers or expertise to manage all their IT and capital projects at the same time?.

The contract was signed in 2003 and estimated to be worth between £50m and £100m.