***EMBARGOED UNTIL 0001 HOURS ON TUESDAY 3 NOVEMBER
2009***
MP, Chairman of the Committee
of Public Accounts, today said:
"This Committee has become inured to the dismal procession of
government IT failures which have passed before us; but even we
were surprised by the extent of the failure of C-NOMIS, the
ambitious project to institute a single database to manage
individual offenders through the prison and probation systems.
"NOMS, the body managing the project, was formed in 2004 from the
merger of two complex and very different organizations. This
placed a severe strain on senior managers' ability to deliver
such a major project. The scale and complexity of what had to be
delivered were underestimated; a culture of over-optimism held
sway, not subject to rigorous and sceptical challenge; costs were
grossly underestimated; there was a lack of capacity and
experience among senior staff; and too much reliance was placed
on a few key individuals. Financial management was deficient to
the extent that costs and progress were not monitored or reported
for the first three years.
"There was not even a minimum level of competence in the planning
and execution of this project. The result has been a three year
delay in the roll-out of the programme, envisaged separate
databases for prisons and probation instead of the original one,
each with different information about an offender, and a doubling
of costs.
"This project has been a shambles. We now expect the substantial
progress in its implementation promised by NOMS to be capable of
being demonstrated satisfactorily to a future hearing of the
Committee."
Mr Leigh was speaking as the Committee published its 40th Report
of this Session which, on the basis of evidence from the National
Offender Management Service (NOMS), examined why the C-NOMIS
project, intended to deliver a single offender management IT
system across prison and probation services, failed badly and
what NOMS has done to retrieve the situation through a redesigned
NOMIS programme.
In 2003, Lord Carter's Correctional Services Review recommended
bringing together prisons and probation services and introducing
'end-to-end offender management'. This change was designed to
improve the supervision of individual offenders throughout their
sentence by a single offender manager, whether the sentence was
served in prison or in the community. NOMS initially part of the
Home Office and since May 2007, part of the Ministry of Justice,
was created in June 2004 to bring this about. Some five years
later, the information systems required to support offender
management are still not in place.
C-NOMIS is a singular example of comprehensively poor project
management, and roll out of the re-scoped programme has only just
begun. The C-NOMIS project, initially envisaged by the Home
Office for delivery in January 2008 for £234 million, was stopped
in August 2007 because costs had trebled. The NOMIS programme was
revised and scaled back to three offender databases for £513
million, for delivery by 2011.
The original concept was ambitious but still technically
feasible. Problems at every level, however, led to an out of
control programme which eventually NOMS could no longer afford.
NOMS significantly underestimated the technical complexity of the
project and the need to standardise ways of working to avoid
excessive customisation. There was also poor planning, poor
financial monitoring, inadequate supplier management and too
little control over changes.
Costs and progress were not monitored or reported for the first 3
years after the inception of C-NOMIS, in part because the first
Senior Responsible Owner overseeing the project did not have
relevant project experience or training. The Project Board, the
NOMS Board, the Home Office senior management and Ministers were
all unaware of the true cost and progress before May 2007. NOMS
cannot say in detail what £161 million to October 2007 was spent
on.
NOMS has assured us that it has implemented the changes needed to
deliver the revised NOMIS programme by 2011. However, there are
significant challenges yet to address, including further contract
negotiations with suppliers, and we look to NOMS to implement the
new systems effectively and deliver the intended benefits.
