Richard Bacon MP (Conservative). He first entered parliment in 2001 and before that worked in investment banking and financial journalism before founding his own communications company. In 2006 he won "Backbencher of the Year" an award voted on by MPs. Also in 2006 he won "Parliamentarian of the Year" by the Spectator magazine, "Politician of the Year" by the Political Studies Association and "Outstanding Parliamentarian of the Year” by the ConservativeHome website. Richard is a member of Parliament's public spending watchdog, the influential Public Accounts Committee. He campaigned for government IT projects to be open to greater public scrutiny. Computer Weekly magazine described his efforts as "set to save millions of pounds". He has a First Class Honours degree in politics and economics. Richard is also a member of the House of Commons European Scrutiny Committee and has been a trenchant critic of financial mismanagement and fraud in the European Union. Richard is married to Victoria, a BBC news producer

Issues

Campaigning for government IT projects to be open to greater public scrutiny

NHS IT

Richard Bacon wrote on his web site Allow hospitals more choice on NHS IT says MP 29 May 2008

..."It could be months before the Department of Health, NHS Connecting for Health and various people with different views within the NHS decide what to do about Fujitsu's withdrawal."

..."The NHS national IT programme has cost so far nearly £4 billion, and I have to question whether most of that money has been well spent. Ministers should put aside the politics of pretending all is well, and they should not give in to the temptation to say that the programme is working just because it’s contractually fairly easy to swap one supplier for another. You can swap suppliers indefinitely and never have a working national programme".

Richard Bacon MP said [1] 16 May 2008

"The latest National Audit Office report could not be clearer. The £12.7 billion national programme for IT in the National Health Service is in crisis. The report shows that key systems are late and show little or no sign of ever being produced in any useful form."

"While systems that are suitable for central deployment such as the N3 broadband link and the Picture Archiving Communications Systems for digital x-rays have made good progress, the serious problems lie with the really complex systems for acute hospitals where central control is manifestly not working"

Highly critical of the NHS IT program.

"serious and growing problems with the whole National Programme for IT in the health service"

"In many respects the NHS IT programme is making things worse not better, while sowing distrust and disillusionment across the health service."

"The tragedy is that if the NHS continues on its present course, a huge amount of money will be spent and much of it will be wasted."

"Now it is clear that patient safety and public health could be at risk. It is time to halt this programme before things get worse."

Richard wrote on his website 6 August 2006

"The last few months have seen a succession of disasters for the NHS National Programme for IT. The list of failures and delays grows ever longer. Two and a half years in, the programme is two years late.

The list of failures and delays grows ever longer. Two and a half years in, the programme is two years late."

"Now it seems that some of the most senior officials in the NHS know perfectly well that the programme will never work properly - indeed that many hospitals would now be better off if they had never taken part in the scheme in the first place."

Speech given in the House of Commons The National Programme for I.T. in the NHS 6 June 2007

...I have followed the national programme for IT in the health service for several years, principally because of my membership of the Public Accounts Committee...

...It is extraordinary and regrettable that the important national programme for IT has become party political. I can think of nothing less party political than a computer system. ...

...One need look no further than the visit that took place on 14 May by David Nicholson, chief executive of the NHS, and Richard Granger, director general of IT, to Milton Keynes to examine the problems there. One IT contact of mine charitably described the visit as a catastrophe. It followed a letter, to which the hon. Member for North Norfolk (Norman Lamb) referred, from 79 doctors, nurses and secretaries at Milton Keynes general hospital, which said:

"We are doctors, nurses and secretaries at Milton Keynes General Hospital. From our early experience of the new Care Records Service computer system it is not fit for purpose.

In spite of heroic efforts from our IT staff and from the installing company, start-up glitches have been unacceptable and particularly bad in outpatient clinics. More seriously the software is so clunky, awkward and unaccommodating that we cannot foresee the system working adequately in a clinical context.

In our opinion it should not be installed in any further hospitals.

If it is not already too late there is a strong argument for withdrawing the Care Records Service system from this hospital."

Milton Keynes is in the southern cluster, where Fujitsu is installing the product from Cerner Millennium. The staff say that it does not work, is not fit for purpose and should be withdrawn.

See also Information Technology in the NHS: What Next? - by Richard Bacon MP and John Pugh MP September 2006, House of Commons Debate 18 July 2006, Parliamentary Question 20 October 2004, House of Commons Debate 29 June 2004, House of Commons Debate 12 February 2004,

ID Cards

Outraged that the Treasury is refusing to publish independent analysis on the ID card scheme.

"It is extraordinary that the Government would go to such lengths to prevent the publication."

He has also called upon the National Audit Office to look into allegations that organised criminal gangs paid civil servants to steal thousands of people's identities from government databases.

Magistrates Courts IT

Critical of Libra – the new IT system for magistrates courts.

"By the time it is introduced, Libra – the new IT system for magistrates courts – will be almost a decade late." "The three systems currently in use are virtually obsolete and Libra has swallowed up funding for upgrades, meaning courts must struggle on, plugging holes in the system with extensive manual work." "It defies belief that magistrates have been recommended to wait for Libra to be delivered before using the full range of sanctions the Courts Act 2003 placed at their disposal."

Links

Richard Bacon MP website
Richard Bacon MP TheyWorkForYou.com
Richard Bacon MP Wikipedia
Richard Bacon MP Conservative Party
Richard Bacon MP BBC
Voting Record

News

2008-06-17 - Computer Weekly - NHS head is content about rejecting NPfIT review: Author: Tony Collins; Summary: At the hearing yesterday of the Public Accounts Committee over the NPfIT, Conservative MP Richard Bacon asked Nicholson whether it would have been wise for there to have been a genuinely independent review of the NHS IT programme - by those unconnected with the programme. "Do you wish you'd done that now?" asked Bacon.

2008-05-23 - Richard Bacon MP Website - Whitehall attitude to computers ‘like a virus’, says MP: Author: Richard Bacon MP; Summary: Mr Bacon said: "Whitehall’s attitude to IT is like a computer virus. It is spreading across government and it is infecting departments". "The symptoms are the same every time. First a department sets a ridiculously tight timetable for implementation, then the system is not tested adequately. Once relations with the supplier crash, then the virus is likely to prove terminal". "DEFRA has already been struck down with this virus, as has HM Revenue and Customs. Last week we heard how badly the NHS has been infected. Now the Department for Transport has been hit. Whitehall needs to change radically its approach to IT, or this infection will continue to spread". Mr Bacon was speaking as the National Audit Office published its report on shared services at the Department for Transport (DfT) and its agencies. The report finds that the DfT used an existing contract with IBM to deliver the IT systems needed to develop shared services across the department. The report finds that the DfT set a very demanding timetable for implementation and, as a consequence of the drive to meet the timetable, users had insufficient time to test the software. As a result, the IT system proved unstable. The shared services programme was forecast to cost £55 million and achieve savings of £112 million. The programme is now forecast to cost over £120 million and save just £40 million.

2007-10-16 - Computer Weekly - HMRC: Good people, poor communications: Author: Tony Collins; Summary: HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) gives the impression it would enjoy its work more if it could avoid communicating with the world outside. ... Hours later MP Richard Bacon, a campaigner for more openness over government IT projects and a member of the House of Commons’ Public Accounts Committee, was questioning Paul Gray, chairman of HMRC. Richard Bacon put it to Paul Gray that HMRC has issued thousands of incorrect penalties three years in a row. Bacon asked: “Will your Department publish lessons learned from IT-related failure document following the example of the Identity and Passport Service Operations Director, Bernard Herdan, who not only did that for the Passport Service but challenged other departments to do the same?"

2007-10-12 - Computer Weekly - ID card costs mixed with sharp passport fee rises: Author: Tony Collins; Summary: MP Richard Bacon, a member of the House of Commons' Public Accounts Committee, says that new passport holders will still have to pay for an ID card, even though the new passport will carry broadly similar data.Richard Bacon was speaking as the Public Accounts Committee published a report on e-passports on 10 October 2007. ... Richard Bacon said: “The new passport will carry the same data as the ID card, so an ID card will do nothing new, other than prove you have paid the identity tax."

2007-04-17 - The Telegraph - The sickening £12 billion NHS fiasco: Author: Richard Bacon MP; Summary: If Connecting for Health (which runs the NPfIT) had been created by one of this country's enemies with the specific task of wasting as much money as possible while causing maximum anger and resentment among doctors, nurses and hospital managers, it could hardly have done a better job. Having been given responsibility for the largest sum of money ever allocated to a health IT programme anywhere in the world, at least £12.4 billion, which incidentally dwarfs the entire NHS deficit, it has failed to deliver.

2007-02-28 - Kable - MP queries passport price hike: Summary: Conservative MP Richard Bacon has cast doubt over the true cost of passports and the national identity card scheme. He accused the Identity and Passport Agency of "muddying the waters" of the true cost of the ID card scheme during a Public Accounts Committee hearing on 27 February 2007.

2007-02-27 - Committee of Public Accounts - HoC Committee of Public Accounts - Introduction of ePassports Video

2006-12-05 - Accountancy Age - MP rewarded for work with Public Accounts Committee: Summary: Tory MP Richard Bacon has been named Parliamentarian of the Year by the Political Studies association for his work on the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee. The citation says: 'Richard Bacon’s excellent work on the Public Accounts Committee epitomises how effective parliamentary work can achieve proper scrutiny of the executive and create the potential for change.

2006-11-30 - E-Health Insider - MP "looking into" how NAO report was drafted: Summary: Commons Public Accounts Committee member and outspoken scrutiniser of the National Programme for IT, Richard Bacon MP, says he is trying to find out what happened during the drafting process of the controversial National Audit Office (NAO) report on the programme.

2006-11-21 - Computer Weekly - NAO highlights perils facing key IT projects: Author: Tony Collins; Summary: Auditors of central government departments have discovered systemic defects in the running of high-risk government IT projects, while they were researching a report on successful schemes. ... MP Richard Bacon has written to the health secretary Patricia Hewitt, putting to her the National Audit Office's nine questions in relation to the NHS's National Programme for IT. Bacon said the National Audit Office report "provides a yardstick against which public sector IT programmes can now be judged". He added, "Unfortunately, many of these questions do not appear to have been asked of the NHS computer upgrade programme."

2006-10-26 - The Guardian - NHS IT sledge lumbers on: Summary: Important parts of the programme are slipping behind, even on timescales provided by the local service providers to Tory MP Richard Bacon in June: they expected to install patient administration systems in 22 acute trusts by the end of October, but far fewer look likely to achieve this.

2006-10-17 - Scotsman - Battle to keep ID report secret: Summary: The Treasury is fighting calls for it to publish independent analysis on the ID card scheme. MP Richard Bacon said: "It is extraordinary that the Government would go to such lengths to prevent the publication."

2006-10-17 - Computing Weekly - Ministers back legal fight to hide ID cards findings: Author: Tony Collins; Summary: Treasury ministers have approved a costly, cross-government legal case to stop the publication of Gateway reviews on identity cards - although the UK's information commissioner and three committees of the House of Commons want information on the reviews released. ... MP Richard Bacon, a member of the Public Accounts Committee, said, "It is extraordinary that the government would go to such lengths to prevent the publication of Gateway reviews. This is all about protecting civil servants' backsides. Using expensive lawyers funded by taxpayers to do it is disgraceful."

2006-09-26 - Computing Weekly - Health staff upbeat about new systems: Author: Tony Collins; Summary: Connecting for Health, which runs the NHS's National Programme for IT, has published comments from health service staff in praise of new systems. But Richard Bacon, a member of the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, remains concerned about the reliability and performance of some of the systems deployed so far. He said there was evidence of "serious and growing problems with the whole National Programme for IT in the health service". Bacon said it would be "sensible to slim down the programme and to give control of purchasing to hospital chief executives locally, subject to common standards".

2006-09-19 - The Telegraph - 110 major computer failures hit NHS: Author: Graeme Wilson; Summary: Hospitals have been hit by 110 "major incidents" in four months as the health service's £12 billion computer system expands nationally, a report claims today. ... The report was greeted with alarm last night by Richard Bacon, the Conservative MP and a senior member of the Commons public accounts select committee. "This is the latest evidence that there are serious and growing problems with the whole national programme for IT in the health service," he said yesterday. "In many respects the NHS IT programme is making things worse, not better, while sowing distrust and disillusionment across the health service." Mr Bacon argued that ministers should respond by reducing the scope of their plans and giving local managers more freedom to buy computer systems subject to common standards.

2006-09-18 - BBC - Concern over NHS IT 'glitches': Summary: Fresh concerns have been raised about the £6.8bn NHS IT upgrade after it emerged there had been 110 major glitches in the last four months.Conservative MP Richard Bacon, a member of the public accounts committee, said the government needed to reconsider the scheme. "This is the latest evidence that there are serious and growing problems with the whole national programme for IT in the health service." "In many respects the NHS IT programme is making things worse not better, while sowing distrust and disillusionment across the health service." "The tragedy is that if the NHS continues on its present course, a huge amount of money will be spent and much of it will be wasted."

2006-09-18 - The Register - DTI keeps eye on iSoft: Summary: The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has vowed to keep troubled National Programme for IT (NPfIT) software supplier iSoft Group under steady review. The DTI was responding to calls from MP Richard Bacon, a member of the Public Accounts Committee, to investigate the group's management after the company recently announced a £344m loss.

2006-09-13 - The Register - iSoft's £82m City sweetener: Author: Kelly Fiveash; Summary: iSoft Plc, the beleaguered NHS software provider, has been given two large chunks of cash totalling close to £82m over the last two years, the government has admitted. Conservative MP Richard Bacon wrote to health secretary Patricia Hewitt on 9 August requesting details of any advance payments made to iSoft by NHS Connecting for Health. ... In response, Bacon put the question to The Guardian: "What good reason could there possibly be for what looks like another giant free public subsidy to a failing company?"

2006-09-08 - The Register - MPs condemn NHS IT: Author: Mark Ballard; Summary: Two members of the Public Accounts Committee have condemned the centrally-run management of the National Programme for IT and called for a return to local decision making and procurement. Conservative MP for South Norfolk Richard Bacon and Liberal Democrat MP for Southport John Pugh picked the programme to pieces in a paper they published yesterday.

2006-09-05 - Computing Weekly - Audit Office pledges new report on NHS: Author: Tony Collins; Summary: The National Audit Office is to publish a new report into the UK's largest IT investment, the £12.4bn National Programme for IT in the NHS. Richard Bacon, said the NAO's report on the NPfIT was not up to the organisation's usual high standards.

2006-08-29 - Computing Weekly - NAO report: a journey from criticism to praise: Author: Tony Collins; Summary: When a report was published in June by the National Audit Office into the NHS's National Programme for IT (NPfIT), it was seen by ministers as a vindication of the UK's decision to spend £12.4bn on the world's largest civil computer scheme. MP Richard Bacon, a member of the Public Accounts Committee who has followed the NPfIT closely and refers to it regularly in Commons speeches, says the report on the scheme is not up to the NAO's usual high standards. He has sent dozens of written questions to the NAO and the Department of Health. He hopes the answers will help inform the committee before it publishes its report. What jumps out from the final report, in comparison with the drafts, is the aggregation of changes that are seemingly minor when considered singly, but which have changed the tone and tenor of the NAO's findings.

2006-08-18 - BBC - NHS report 'criticisms deleted': Summary: A report into the £6.8bn NHS IT upgrade had criticisms removed and toned down before publication, the BBC learns. Richard Bacon, a Tory MP and member of the Public Accounts Committee, said: "I, like many, was quite surprised the NAO report because it did not reflect many of the concerns."

2006-08-08 - The Register - MP says NHS IT should be flushed: Author: Mark Ballard; Summary: A leaked report by David Kwo, who had been in charge of implementing the scheme in London. Kwo, it said, had written that "the NHS would most likely have been better off without the national programme". Richard Bacon, MP for South Norfolk, who received the leaked report, called for the NPfIT to be scrapped. "The billions of pounds already spent could have been used to run 10 district general hospitals for a year," he told the Observer. "Now it is clear that patient safety and public health could be at risk. It is time to halt this programme before things get worse."

2006-08-07 - Computing Weekly - NHS would be ‘better off’ without £12,4bn IT scheme: Author: Tash Shifrin; Summary: The NHS would have been “better off” without the £12.4bn National Programme for IT (NPfIT), according to a document apparently written by a former director for the scheme.... The document sent to Conservative MP Richard Bacon, a member of the Commons public accounts committee, was revealed in the Observer newspaper on Sunday. ... Bacon called on prime minister Tony Blair to halt the NHS IT programme, labelling it "his personal brainchild".

2006-07-27 - Computing Weekly - IT delays are hitting law enforcement, says auditor: Author: Lindsay Clark; Summary: Conservative MP Richard Bacon, who sits on the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, said, "By the time it is introduced, Libra – the new IT system for magistrates courts – will be almost a decade late." "The three systems currently in use are virtually obsolete and Libra has swallowed up funding for upgrades, meaning courts must struggle on, plugging holes in the system with extensive manual work." "It defies belief that magistrates have been recommended to wait for Libra to be delivered before using the full range of sanctions the Courts Act 2003 placed at their disposal."

2006-07-21 - Computing Weekly - NHS IT leadership slammed in parliament: Author: Lindsay Clark; Summary: Richard Bacon has blasted the management style of Richard Granger, the director general of NHS IT responsible for delivering the £6.2bn National Programme for IT in the NHS.

2006-07-11 - Computing Weekly - NHS trust uncovers password sharing risk to patient data: Author: Tony Collins; Summary: The UK's largest NHS trust has discovered endemic sharing of passwords and log-in identifications by staff, recording 70,000 cases of "inappropriate access" to systems, including medical records, in one month. ... Last year, in answer to a parliamentary question from MP Richard Bacon, the then health minister Liam Byrne confirmed that a number of smartcards issued under the NPfIT to GPs in Es$ex had the same personal identification number for every user.

2006-07-07 - Computing Weekly - Interim vaccination tracking system “putting children at risk,” says HPA: Author: Lindsay Clark; Summary: ... Conservative MP Richard Bacon pointed out that this was contradicted by the report from the HPA. “These wildly contradictory statements will cause great confusion and concern for many parents of young children in the London area. I have asked the health secretary for an urgent explanation of how she plans to solve these problems, which have been created as a direct result of the new NHS IT programme,” he said.

2006-07-06 - BBC - Child jab chaos after IT upgrade: Summary: Child vaccination rates may be falling to risky levels after a new IT system was installed, a health watchdog says. Richard Bacon, a Tory MP and member of the Commons' Public Accounts Committee, said: "The national vaccination programme has been one of the NHS's greatest successes." But he added the IT upgrade appeared to be "destroying it at a touch of a button".

2006-06-30 - The Register - Blair backs NPfIT: Summary: The prime minister has declared his faith in the NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT). Tony Blair stated his support in response to a parliamentary question from Conservative MP Richard Bacon.

2006-06-06 - The Guardian - NHS trusts pay millions in fines to suppliers of delayed IT system: Author: John Carvel; Summary: NHS trusts are being made to pay multimillion-pound penalties to computer suppliers because of a clause in contracts for the health service's £20bn IT scheme. The Tory MP Richard Bacon, a member of the Commons public accounts committee, discovered the fines against NHS trusts. "At a time when hard-pressed NHS trusts are having to make painful choices to reduce deficits, they are being forced to pay money they don't have and release staff they can't spare, for something they don't want and which doesn't work ... the NHS is being hit with fines running into tens of millions of pounds, which it simply cannot afford".

2006-06-06 - The Register - NHS IT costs hospitals dear: Summary: More bad news for the UK government's NHS IT programme - cash-strapped health authorities are having to pay millions in compensation to Fujitsu and CSC. The payments collected by Fujitsu came to light thanks to Parliamentary questions from MP Richard Bacon.

2006-05-19 - The Register - NAO urged to investigate identity fraud: Summary: An MP has called upon the National Audit Office (NAO) to look into allegations that organised criminal gangs paid civil servants to steal thousands of people's identities from government databases. Richard Bacon, MP for South Norfolk and member of the Commons Public Accounts Committee, has written to NAO head John Bourn, asking him to investigate the security of personal data held by government departments. Bacon emphasised reports of identity theft from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and HM Revenue and Customs and said these should be treated as a matter of urgency.

2006-03-24 - The Register - NHS IT probe useless: Author: Mark Ballard; Summary: Committee member Richard Bacon, MP for Norfolk South, said NPfIT "exhibits all the classic signs of a huge IT failure" because "it was ordained from the centre, there was no consultation".

2006-03-17 - The Register - Doubts over Home Office e-tagging: Summary: Home Office assumptions about the high performance of tagging equipment, used to monitor prisoners on early release, is based on "woefully inadequate" evidence, MPs on the Public Accounts Committee were told. Conservative MP Richard Bacon, acting chair of the committee, also raised the issue of problems with finalising paperwork so that prisoners can be released. The NAO examined 100 case files. It found that 58 prisoners were granted release under a home detection curfew, but only 28 of these (48 per cent) were released on their eligibility date.

2006-03-14 - BBC - Fears over patient record system: Summary: The National Audit Office is being urged to investigate reports the switch to a new NHS computer system could have put patients at one hospital at risk. ... South Norfolk MP and member of the Commons public accounts committee Richard Bacon has written to the National Audit Office asking it to investigate.

2006-01-24 - Computing Weekly - Prime minister comes under fire over government IT programmes: Author: Tony Collins; Summary: ... This answer prompted Richard Bacon, a member of the Public Accounts Committee, to question whether the technology supporting ID cards would work. Bacon said, "The prime minister could not explain the reasons for the police computer delay in answer to an earlier question. Why, then, should we believe what he says about identity cards, given that they are above all else a government computer project?" When Blair did not answer the question directly and instead gave a justification of ID cards, Bacon interrupted. "What about the computer project?" A chorus of MPs called on Blair to answer Bacon's question.

2005-08-23 - Computing Weekly - Concern over HMRC attempts to constrain directors' public speech: Author: Tony Collins; Summary: HM Revenue and Customs is under fire from parliamentarians for apparently attempting to stop board directors revealing the full extent of its challenges. ... MP Richard Bacon, a member of the House of Commons' Public Accounts Committee, said that Varney's reminder to directors could be seen as an attempt to gag them after Lamey's outspoken comments. "It was refreshing to have a senior IT specialist, who is familiar with the business issues, and who is prepared to identify clearly what the scale of the problems is. Unless you've got that degree of frankness and candour, I don't think you're really going to solve the underlying problems." "The alternative is to be in denial, to suggest that the problems don't exist. It is plain that they do."

2004-10-19 - BBC - 'No confidence' in new NHS computer: Summary: A survey of doctors shows that three quarters of those questioned say they're not confident that the new £6bn computer system for the NHS will deliver value for money. The Conservative MP Richard Bacon, who is a member of the Commons Public Accounts Committee, says he believes the project is suffering from "systemic failure". He says the lesson from previous Government IT failures is that there was not enough involvement from those who use the system - and he's worried in this case about the lack of effective consultation with clinicians:"It is a recipe for continuing failure and for continuing to fail to learn the lessons that are all around us"

2004-10-12 - The Register - NHS IT costs skyrocket: Author: Lucy Sherriff; Summary: The final cost of the NHS National Programme for IT could top £30bn, and local NHS Trusts will have to find the bulk of the extra cash. Richard Bacon, Tory member of the Public Accounts Committee, said: "If trusts are not given the money to pay for the national programme, how on earth are they going fund it? Will this mean patients waiting even longer for treatment while billions of pounds are spent on unproven systems?"

2004-10-04 - Computing Weekly - Blunkett targets six million passengers in e-borders pilot: Author: Bill Goodwin; Summary: The government is stepping up its drive to introduce biometric ID cards with David Blunkett, the home secretary, using last week's Labour Party conference to announce Project Semaphore. ... Richard Bacon, Conservative member of the Public Accounts Committee, said, "If you wanted to run a project successfully, you would follow the principles of project management, which is building a good business case before you start spending millions of tax-payers' money."

2004-08-02 - Computing Weekly - Secrecy puts identity card project at risk, warn MPs: Author: Bill Goodwin; Summary: Lack of independent technical scrutiny could lead to failure, warns report. MPs from all the main political parties have called on the Home Office to open its multibillion-pound national identity card project to independent technical scrutiny. ... MP Richard Bacon, who sits on the Public Accounts Committee, said it was vital that the Home Office did not sweep aside the committee's recommendations.

2004-05-05 - The Register - European healthcare 'online by 2008': Author: Lucy Sherriff; Summary: This week, for example, the British Medical Association (BMA) has joined MPs and the National Audit Office in criticising the government over the NHS IT programme, saying doctors have not been adequately consulted about its implementation. MP Richard Bacon, a member of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), has already written to the National Audit Office (NAO) to highlight the issue. In his letter, he said that the NHS has "failed to consult users adequately and has studiously avoided redesigning business processes in parallel with the new technology - thereby ignoring various NAO and PAC recommendations."

2003-11-11 - BBC - Courts project 'disastrous' - MPs: Summary: A £400m government project to supply computers to magistrates courts has been "disastrous", according to MPs. Tory MP Richard Bacon, said the government should think twice before doing further business with Fujitsu. He said: "This is not the first time that Fujitsu has let taxpayers down so badly."

2001-12-13 - BBC - Stolen learning accounts 'for sale': Summary: Account numbers obtained from the official database of people who had signed up for training grants were stolen and offered for sale, an education minister said. ... Another Tory MP, Richard Bacon, claimed that at least one "scammer" had been claiming up to £1m a week, equivalent to training for 5,000 students. He said these actions had "besmirched the good name" of genuine training providers.