Whitehall intelligence sharing system scrapped

the system would have shared information across Whitehall

A multimillion-pound computer project designed to share secret service intelligence across government and Whitehall has been scrapped, according to the annual report of the Intelligence and Security Committee.

The Scope system was already partly up and running after a two-year delay, and tens of millions of pounds invested. It enabled MI5, MI6, and GCHQ to share information in a matter of minutes rather than hours.

But the second phase of the project was cancelled after technical issues, Cabinet secretary Gus O'Donnell told the committee.

"We know that the way they were planning to do [Phase II] won’t work. So we are working actively on ways in which we can achieve those benefits, but probably through rather different routes," the committee report quotes him as saying.

The committee expressed outrage at the decision.

"We have consistently reported concerns about Scope and are appalled that Phase II of the system – on which tens of millions of pounds have been spent – has now had to be scrapped," the report says.

"We sincerely hope that lessons have been learnt from this failure and that they will be used when plans for the future are being drawn up. We will be investigating the reasons for the serious failure of this important project, and will report on the matter in the forthcoming year."

Scope was intended to replace paper intelligence briefing documents in Whitehall with a more sophisticated electronic method.

The second phase would have given officials in government departments and military personnel secure electronic access to intelligence.