To ask Her Majesty's Government why the updating of NHS patients records increased in cost from £2.3 billion to £12.7 billion, as a result of information technology cost over-runs. [HL1375]

£2.3 billion was the budget agreed under the Comprehensive Spending Review for the first three years of a programme that was always expected to take at least 10 years to deliver in full. In its latest report on the programme, published on 16 May 2008, the National Audit Office made it clear that there have been no cost increases on the original contracts and that the increase in the eventual total cost from an estimated £12.4 billion in 2006 to £12.7 billion in 2008 was attributable to the procurement of additional systems and services. Of this total, some £3.5 billion has been spent to date, as suppliers are paid only when systems have been successfully deployed and are working satisfactorily.