Probation computer '£83m over budget'

The probation service says report recommendations will be implemented

The Home Office has been sharply criticised by spending watchdogs over its handling of a "seriously flawed" computer system which went £83m over budget.

The IT system installed for the Probation Service was hard to use and badly designed, according to probation officers.

Disastrous mistakes led to a case management computer system, known as CRAMS, being used by only 16 of the 54 former local probation service areas, a report by the National Audit Office (NOA) revealed on Thursday.

It even slows down on National Lottery days because it shares the same bandwidth

National Association of Probation Officers

Probation officers said they had been telling the government since 1994 that the system was faulty.

The overall computer system ended up costing £118m, 70% more than expected, with CRAMS alone costing £7m extra.

"The Home Office underestimated the technical risks associated with developing CRAMS from an existing probation service system," said the report.

Comptroller and Auditor General Sir John Bourne said: "There are some important lessons to be learnt from the serious flaws in the Home Office's procurement and management of this IT programme.

"The new National Probation Service now has an opportunity to address these issues as it develops a new IT strategy and enters into a new strategic partnership."

'Waste of money'

Harry Fletcher, assistant general secretary of the National Association of Probation Officers, said they had been telling the Home Office since 1994 that the system was "ineffective and a waste of money".

"The case recording system is slow, it has too many functions, it cannot do risk assessments, it is extremely difficult to put mistakes right and it had over 200 errors.

"It is essential that the Home Office consults with users and learns from its past errors if it is to command confidence in the future," he said.

Advances

Director of the new National Probation Service Eithne Wallis said the report's conclusions were not disputed.

"The system has already been scrutinised by our own inspectors and we recognise the weaknesses that they and the NAO have found.

"We would not seek to argue that the management of the project from 1993 was without problems, but neither would we want to minimise the real advances that have been made and highlighted by the NAO, particularly in electronic communications.

"The recent creation of a National Probation Service gives me the opportunity to ensure that probation staff are properly equipped with an IT system that allows them to do a difficult job effectively, fulfilling our key role in the criminal justice system."

The service is well on the way to addressing the recommendations in the report, she added.