£7bn defence IT project running 18 months late

EDS-led consortium criticised by MPs for underestimating complexity of software

DII will be used across the armed forces

The Ministry of Defence's (MoD's) £7.1bn Defence Information Infrastructure (DII) project is running 18 months late due to bad planning, according to MPs.

A Public Accounts Committee report has savaged the handling of the project, saying that only 45,600 of 62,800 terminals due to be installed by July 2007 were in place by the end of September 2008, and highlighting concerns about the possible failure of hundreds of ageing legacy systems running past their retirement dates.

The system is intended to provide a range of core software including word processing, email, internet access and security in the UK, at sea and on operations. Some 150,000 computers are due to be installed at more than 200 MoD locations.

Committee chairman Edward Leigh said that the DII was "badly planned" with no proper pilot and "entirely inadequate research" involving a miscalculation of the condition of MoD buildings in which it would be installed.

"In addition, the Atlas consortium implementing the project - led by EDS, a company whose track record of delivering government IT projects has not been exemplary - underestimated the complexity of the software it had agreed to create," he said.

"For over two years, it was unable to deliver a system that could safely handle secret material."

Leigh said that extra costs keeping legacy systems going and dealing with any increase in the number of software errors must be charged back to the Atlas consortium.

MoD permanent secretary Sir Bill Jeffrey admitted that the system "has taken longer to deliver then we had intended" but said it is being rolled out across the department, is on track to deliver benefits of £1.5bn over 10 years, and has delivered two early new capabilities for forces in Afghanistan, improvements to existing systems and the provision of helpdesk facilities with a single point of contact.

"We are confident that remaining problems will be overcome with the help of our commercial partners in the Atlas consortium," he said.

But Tory shadow defence secretary Dr Liam Fox said: "This report tells a story of Labour's incompetence, mismanagement and complacency. It is yet another IT disaster story for a government which has consistently shown a cavalier attitude to personal information."

The report also warns of discontent among existing users,with 40 per cent dissatisfied.