The information as requested is not readily available centrally within the Department for Education and Skills. To respond fully would involve an extensive internal and external information collection exercise which would exceed the recommended disproportionate cost threshold.
However, to be helpful, some information is a matter of record.
(1) The Department’s Individual Learning Account (ILA) Programme, which was ICT enabled, was withdrawn in 2002 following allegations of fraud and abuse. Expenditure on the scheme totalled £268.8 million; the majority of this amount being payments to learning providers. Analysis of the scheme is given in the report: ‘The House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts (2003), Individual Learning Accounts, Tenth Report of Session 2002-03 (Ref: HC 544), TSO, London’.
(2) A project comprising two contracts to upgrade the Department’s payroll and human resources systems was abandoned when, after extensive delays during the development, it became apparent that the IT related costs would escalate, and better value for money would be achieved by finding an alternative software solution. Significant compensatory payments were secured as part of a negotiated settlement on one contract but are subject to confidentiality agreements. The costs incurred on the second contract totalled £348,682; these details were reported in the ‘Notes to the Department for Education and Skills Resource Accounts for 2003-04 (Ref: HC 227), TSO, London January 2005’.
(3) The Government allocated £62 million to the HEFCE for the UK e-University (UKeU). Project over the period 2001-04 with the aim of establishing the e-University as a single vehicle for the delivery of UK universities’ HE programmes over the internet. UKeU launched its first programmes in 2003, attracting just 900 students against a target of 5,600. On 25 February 2004, the HEFCE Board decided that in future HEFCE funding should support the development of e-learning in universities and colleges—in effect the HEFCE terminated UKeU. £50 million out of the Government’s allocation of £62 million had been spent on the project. An analysis of the project is given in the report: ‘The House of Commons Education and Skills Select Committee (2005), UK e-University, Third Report of Session 2004-05 (Ref: HC 205), TSO’, London.