Report - Guardian

The LSE Identity Project Report: June 2005 219project’s failure, and these were not limited solely to its complexity and size, but ratherdown to project management. 527The Criminal Records Bureau is another project of similar magnitude, set up betweenthe UK Passport and Records Agency and Capita plc. The Bureau is now a separateAgency, and manages the contract with Capita, carries out checks on the PoliceNational Computer, and manages relationships with police, Registered Bodies and otherGovernment Departments. 528 The Bureau now handles between 40,000 and 50,000applications per week, guiding recruitment decisions for registered organisations.The Bureau was supposed to start operations in September 2001 but a series of delaysshifted the start date to March 2002. This occurred despite the use of independentconsultants to check for due diligence in the contract bid process. The NAO insteadattributes the delays to a number of reasons including- The research on the needs of the system was poor, despite the use of a customerforum and ‘roadshows’ involving 5000 participants.- Business processes could not cope with the volumes of errors and exceptions inthe applications that arrived, and the complexity of dealing with both individualsand employers.- There were limits on the number of users who could access the system at thesame time, and the links between the Bureau and the Metropolitan police wereslow.- There were significant gaps of understanding in the relationship between thecontractor, Capita, and the Agency.- The Bureau could not establish data links with Customs & Excise and the BritishTransport Police.When the Department for Education and Skills then announced in August 2002 that allschool employees had to be vetted by the Bureau, the business process faced significantdelays. Checks on social care and health care workers were delayed by up to sixmonths. Checks on the Department of Health’s list of persons considered unsuitable towork with vulnerable adults were also deferred. The Bureau’s deficit is 68.2 million,though this is expected to rise to 98.8 million. 529 Fees have increased by 200%. 530These failures are part of a generalised problem in Government’s ability to manageprojects. The table below shows a recent summary of a number of government projectfailures over the years. 531527 Ibid, p.11.528 ‘Criminal Records Bureau: Delivering Safer Recruitment?’, Report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, HC266 Session 2003-2004, February 2004, p.1.529 Ibid., page 31.530 Ibid., p.5.531 ‘The Coordination of e-Government in Historical Context’, Joe Organ, Public Policy and Administration Volume18, No.2, Summer 2003.