'Whitehall, we have a problem with 21 major IT projects,' warns Major Projects Authority

And four of them are on code red, as MPA releases annual report, but goes all coy over Universal Credit

Twenty-one major IT projects have been flagged as problematic, while four are mired in disaster, in the Major Project Authority's (MPA) latest annual report.

According to its colour coding, four are rated as "red", the worst rating, indicating that the project is unachievable and close to failure. They include three in the NHS: the controversial Care.data project run by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC), the NHS Health and Social Care Network, and the NHS Choices website.

The other project mired in difficulty and rated "red" is the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) at the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).

The MPA claimed that there had been some improvement over the past three years since the first annual report. "Of the eight projects assessed as red in 2012, four have shown particularly marked progress: the Office for National Statistics' Web Data Access Project has shown most change and is now rated green. The Home Office's Transforming the Customer Experience, the Ministry of Defence's Watchkeeper, and the Office for National Statistics' European Systems of Accounting are now assessed as amber/green," it suggested.

Other projects being taken out of the casualty unit include the Home Office's Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme. "This cross-departmental programme, led by the Home Office, will deliver a critical mobile voice and broadband data communications solution to the police, fire and ambulance services, resulting in cheaper, smarter and better services. It will become operational between 2017 and 2020 as existing local Airwave contracts expire and services transition on to the new Emergency Service Network."

But there was scant information about the controversial Universal Credit project, an ambitious plan to merge six separate benefits and tax credits for working age people into one system. Despite the "red/amber" rating attached to it by the MPA, making it one of the 21 considered to be in trouble, the MPA has left it to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to explain away its problems - except that the DWP hasn't been forthcoming with details.

This has led some observers to suggest an official whitewash.

"At the request of permanent secretaries the MPA has agreed not to publish its comments on the traffic light status of certain projects, including Universal Credit," noted UKCampaign4Change's Tony Collins.

Furthermore, all of the MPA colour-coded ratings were set - for reasons best known to them - in September last year, so are far from up-to-date. "It is odd in a modern democracy that a large central government department - the DWP - can spend £330m on the IT for a major project and get away with publishing such obviously contradictory information on the scheme," wrote Collins.