John Baron MP: There is more than meets the eye to MoD IT failure

MP seeks clarity from Defence Secretary

On Tuesday in the House of Commons, the Secretary of State for Defence, Rt Hon Philip Hammond MP, responded to an Urgent Question on the failures and cost overruns of the new MoD IT systems and the consequential negative effects on Army recruitment, particularly into the reserves.

In answer to questions about the additional cost of putting this IT failure right, the impression was gained from the Defence Secretary’s answers that the figure was £4.5m – this being the additional cost of Capita taking over from Atlas to right these problems. However, the actual additional cost of putting this right by switching to Capita is £47m, once the money already paid to Atlas (£15.5m of sunk cost – including a £6.7m overrun – for an incomplete platform) is taken into account. This is in addition to the £1m/month cost of additional manpower. John has written to the Defence Secretary seeking clarity. It is also understood that the Public Accounts Committee and the National Audit Office will now be looking at the costs of this IT failure.

John said,

“There is more than meets the eye to the Defence Secretary’s figures. The impression has been gained that the additional cost of putting this IT shambles right would only be £4.5m – which represents the extra cost of using Capita over Atlas. However, the actual cost to fix the system is Capita’s fee of £47m.”

“I have written to the Defence Secretary hoping that he will clarify figures, as it is easy to miss the full significance of his statement at first glance.”