To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what the (a) start date, (b) original planned completion date, (c) current expected completion date, (d) planned cost and (e) current estimated cost is of each information technology project being undertaken by his Department and its agencies; and if he will make a statement. (180572)

The contract for the ARIES Finance, Procurement and Reporting System was signed in November 2005. The original planned completion date was October 2008. The projected supplier base cost at tender was £11 million. A number of additional cost options are available under the contract. The current expected completion date is July 2009 with an estimated supplier base cost of £16 million. This estimate reflects agreed changes to the scope of the project, a software upgrade, additional consultancy support for change management, development of end-user training materials and assistance with training and rollout.

The contract for the Quest electronic document and records management project was signed in March 2004. The main rollout was originally estimated to be completed in December 2005. Detailed planning carried out in early 2005 led to a revised target date of March 2006, which was met. Additional planned enhancements are on track to be completed in March 2008. The projected supplier base cost at tender was £8.98 million. The current projected total supplier cost is £11.68 million, including additional cost options available under the original contract.

The web transformation project began in December 2007. The current expected completion date is December 2008, but planning is not yet complete. The projected cost is £2 million.

The HR transformation project started in March 2005 and is on track to be complete in March 2008 as planned. The original budget was £6.5 million and the current forecast is £6 million.

The laptop refresh project started in October 2007 and is on track to complete the procurement stage by the end of February 2008 as planned. The estimated completion date for the rollout is December 2008. The original budget was £1.8 million and the current forecast is £1.7 million.

The virtual private network replacement project started in March 2007 and was originally planned to end in April 2008. The current estimated completion date is December 2008. The original budget was £1.23 million and the current forecast is £1.6 million.

DFID has also let a number of small IT related contracts. However, our central records do not distinguish IT contracts, so provision of details for these projects would incur disproportionate costs.