£200m 'wasted' on botched IT plans

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The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) alone has spent £156m on aborted programmes, official figures show.

That included £143m invested in a benefits processing project that was scrapped, although ministers insist £73m of that has still been of value to the DWP.

The figures, from the past five years, were obtained by shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Philip Hammond via a series of Parliamentary questions.

He said they were proof of Prime Minister Gordon Brown's "casual" use of public money.

"Families struggling to make ends meet and facing the uncertainties of recession will be outraged to learn that millions of pounds of their money have been wasted on these botched IT programmes. This is yet more evidence of Gordon Brown's casual attitude to taxpayers' money."

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has got rid of three major IT programmes before they were completed, costing a total of £26m.

They included the £12.6m pilot of a data and records management system, which was subsequently ditched, a £9.7m customer information programme and a £4m project for handling licences for protected species.

The Department for Transport has spent £9m on cancelled programmes, comprising mainly a £7.9m DVLA vehicle-tracking system.

In addition, £5m has been spent by the Cabinet Office, £4m by the Ministry of Justice and £1m by the Department for Communities and Local Government on abandoned IT programmes.