National Offender Management Service

Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Justice – in the House of Commons at 2:30 pm on 17 March 2009.

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Photo of David Hanson David Hanson The Minister of State, Ministry of Justice 2:30, 17 March 2009

I take it from that that my hon. Friend has some concerns about how the project was managed. He mentioned a figure of £700 million. On assuming this office, I took steps to review the C-NOMIS project and to put a moratorium on it when the costs were £155 million, in order to avoid the £700 million bill that I would have expected to receive had the project continued under the proposals at the time. There were difficulties in the project, but we have put it back on track. We have revised the costings, the project will be completed by July next year, at the latest, and thanks to the actions we took it will cost significantly less than was projected in the first place. I take my hon. Friend's point and I recognise the serious failings that the NAO drew to our attention.