"£950m bill forces rethink on computer tracking of offenders" by Alan Travis, The Guardian

9th August 2007

The future of the computer system that is supposed to keep track of 300,000 offenders a year who are in prison or on probation is in doubt after ministers halted the programme this week. The moratorium follows an admission that the original £234m costing "proved to be optimistic".

Unions say the 2004 estimate has now risen to £950m. The rollout to 15 prisons next month and 15 more by the end of the year has been cancelled.

The new computer system is supposed to underpin the introduction of "end-to-end management" of convicted criminals through the National Offender Management Service (Noms) which oversees the prison and probation service. But Harry Fletcher, of Napo, the probation officers' union, yesterday claimed the project, which is six months late and supposed to be in full operation by next July, was "close to collapse".

The Ministry of Justice last night confirmed that a "rapid review" of the custody-Noms information system, officially known as C-Nomis, is under way. Ministers are to decide in mid-September how much of the project can be salvaged. It is expected that it will be adopted in a scaled-down form for the 140 prisons in England and Wales but is unlikely to be rolled out across the probation service. Cancellation could involve paying the contractors, EDS, a £50m penalty.

The system is supposed to provide a single database of all offenders in England and Wales and their histories, instantly accessible to the 70,000 staff in the prison and probation system. It is designed to give every offender a number "for life" so that their record of offending, sentences, behaviour and treatment programmes can be logged.

The justice minister, David Hanson, has asked for a "full audit trail" on the £155m spent so far on the programme. The system has been tested in three Isle of Wight prisons at a cost of £69m but they are not linked up to any other part of the criminal justice system. A similar trial planned with Northamptonshire probation service did not go ahead.

Roger Hill, director of the Probation Service, told chief officers on Monday that the original costing had proved optimistic: "We have advised ministers that we will need to undertake a fundamental review of the work, to return to an affordable programme plan." The director general of the Prison Service, Phil Wheatley, has told staff: "It is obviously disappointing that the C-Nomis project will not be provided as originally anticipated."

Mr Fletcher said: "The whole project appears to have been badly managed since its inception. It is arguably an outrageous waste of public money. As a consequence of the problems, probation staff will now have to use IT systems that are not fit for purpose."