FiReControl project slammed as "comprehensive failure"

The FiReControl project to replace 46 fire and rescue services' local control rooms with nine purpose-built regional control rooms linked by a new IT system has been labelled "a comprehensive failure" by the National Audit Office (NAO).

Parliament's spending watchdog said at least £469m had been "wasted", as no new IT system had been delivered and eight of the nine new control rooms remain empty and costly to maintain.

The report from the NAO said the project "was flawed from the start". It had no support from local fire and rescue services when the Department for Communities and Local Government tried to impose the system without sufficient mandatory powers and without sufficient consultation with independent-minded local authorities.

It said the department had under-appreciated the project's complexity, mismanaged the IT contractor's performance and delivery, failed to provide the necessary leadership to make the project successful, over-relied on poorly managed consultants, and failed to sort out early problems with delivery by the contractor.

The department terminated the contract last December.

Comptroller and auditor general Amyas Morse said: "This is yet another example of a government IT project taking on a life of its own, absorbing ever-increasing resources without reaching its objectives."

He added the project "was approved on the basis of unrealistic estimates of costs and under-appreciation of the complexity of the IT involved. The project was hurriedly implemented and poorly managed."

Tory communities secretary Eric Pickles seized on the report to lambast the last Labour government. He said it was "another damning indictment of Labour's track record on expensive IT projects", adding that "this was John Prescott's folly".

The only centre being used is the one in London, and that is being subsidised by the department.

The report follows an NAO report criticising the NHS IT Programme for being poor value for money, patchy and overdue, and warning its core aim of a transferrable record for every patient will not be achieved.

Leading Commons Public Accounts Committee member Tory MP Richard Bacon said Connecting for Health had failed and should be shut down.