Hansard

Public Sector: IT Projects

Volume 692: debated on Tuesday 5 June 2007

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The Earl of Northesk

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether, as recently stated by the Chief Information Officer at the Department for Work and Pensions, £14 billion a year is being spent on public sector information technology projects. [HL3917]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions
(Lord McKenzie of Luton)

This is not the case. The £14 billion figure quoted by the Chief Information Officer at the Department for Work and Pensions refers to an independent estimate of the total IT expenditure across the public sector for 2005-06. This figure includes annual running costs on operational systems and processes as well as expenditure on projects. The Government's transformational government annual report, published in January 2007, estimated that public sector annual IT expenditure was £12.4 billion for 2005-06.