To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps she has taken to achieve adoption and acceptance of the NHS IT programme by trust executives since 2002; and what estimate she has made of future levels of adoption. (76387)

Following publication of the strategy ‘Delivering 21^st Century IT support for the NHS’, the NHS chief executive wrote to the chief executives of all national health service bodies in September 2003 explaining their responsibilities for implementing the national programme for information technology (NPfTT) and for using programme contracts.

Local programmes, led by trust executives and supported from the Department, have always been at the heart of implementation, taking responsibility for planning the pace and sequence of deployments. In addition, the Department has routinely used its planning and performance management regime to support local implementation of the national programme. For example, during 2004 annual planning round, the NHS were provided with targets relating to the planning and implementation of the programme. Similarly, in June 2005, the Department wrote to all strategic health authority (SHA) chief executives requiring the establishment of integrated service improvement programmes as a vehicle for bringing together benefits and improvements from current NHS initiatives and programmes, including NPfIT. In November 2005 the Department’s delivery director reiterated the importance of giving close attention to issues relating to delivery of the programme, and that implementation and use of NPfIT systems and services should be one of the key priorities of all NHS organisations.

The new SHA and primary care trust chief executives will in future be the senior responsible owners for implementation of the national programme in their areas.

We remain on track to complete the national programme, as planned, by 2010.