Anger over Labour’s £26 billion COMPUTER bill

Anger over Labour’s £26 billion COMPUTER bill

“Only fiscal autonomy will allow Scotland to flourish financially”

SNP MP for the Western Isles, Angus MacNeil, has seized on reports that a series of computer blunders but the UK Labour Government has cost UK taxpayer’s £26 billion.

The figures, uncovered in an investigation by The Independent, show the huge bills, severe delays, missed budgets and cancellations that have blighted IT projects implemented by the UK Government.

His comments come as the Ministry of Defence announced it has signed a further contract to deliver the next phase of the Defence Information Infrastructure programme (DII), the world’s largest Defence IT programme, worth some £540 million. This project is currently running more than £180 million over budget and 18 months late.

Commenting, Mr MacNeil said:

“It’s simply beggars belief that – in the midst of downturn they created - the UK Labour Government has lumbered a £26 billion bill on the taxpayer due to sheer inefficiency and downright incompetence.

“The DII programme for example is already over deadline and over budget, yet only today we’ve heard the UK Government has signed away another £540 million on the project. How can the public have confidence that the UK Government is not throwing good money after bad?

“The Scottish taxpayer’s share of this Labour burden is around £2.6 billion. I’m quite sure people in Scotland would rather these squandered billions had been spent improving life for people in Scotland, rather than being wasted on unfulfilled and unproductive computer systems.

“To add insult to injury, Westminster is slashing the Scottish budget by £814 million as revenues from North Sea oil prop up the UK Treasury. The case could not be clearer for Scotland to have full fiscal autonomy to allow it to flourish financially, rather than remaining subject to the whims of a wasteful UK Government.

“Labour haven’t just lost billions on botched computer systems, they’ve lost public confidence as well”