asked Her Majesty's Government:

What has been the cost so far of preparing for the implementation of the custody-national offender management information system (C-NOMIS); what is the current estimate of the total of set-up costs and implementation across the prison and probation management systems; and what was the original estimate of the costs of setting up and implementing C-NOMIS. [HL1148]

The cost of preparing for the implementation of the C-NOMIS system at HMP Albany includes all costs (supplier and internal costs) associated with the application development and implementation incurred to-date. (Please see attached table.)

Currently, the estimate for the total set-up and implementation costs across the prison and probation management systems is being revisited. The estimate will be prepared once development and implementation plans have been finalised and approved by the C-NOMIS programme board and in the light of emerging feedback from implementation at HMP Albany.

The business case estimate of project cost is £99 million (excluding annual charges of £9 million per annum, which includes increased wide area network, hardware and software maintenance, first, second and third line post-implementation support and so on). The costs excluded sunk costs of £16.7 million to the end of June 2005 (used to produce a prototype, technical designs and contracts). The estimated full life cost (over 14 years) is £234 million (including support and technical refreshes), which equates to about £240 per member of staff per annum. The estimated costs include licensing the preferred COTS package, design and development of the system, user trials, data migration, implementation, training and ongoing support and maintenance.