DWP urged to make IT department more efficient

14:30 20th November 2008

A group of MPs yesterday (November 19th) urged the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) to invest more training and resources into important IT projects to prevent them from being delivered late.

The committee of MPs, drawn from a cross-section of the main political parties, raised their concerns after the National Audit Office revealed 19 IT projects within the department had not met their deadlines or had run over budget.

The government department is thought to currently be spending £2 billion on the implementation of over 200 IT projects.

IT director-general for DWP, Joe Harley, commented: "We have hugely strengthened department governance and this allows us to see where the problems have come from."

He added that with additional IT training and measures that have been put in place he does not expect the same problems to crop up again.

DWP has launched a pilot scheme that will update all records when a birth or bereavement is reported to ensure that an individual is not repeatedly asked to confirm the event by different government departments.