The taxpayer is picking up the bill for the government's failure to effectively manage vital computers systems, according to a House of Commons spending watchdog.

The Public Accounts Committee said the £7bn spent on information technology systems in 1999 could have been much lower if the government could only learn from its mistakes.

The government has welcomed the report and said it would issue a corporate IT strategy later this year.

The committee said failures in setting up IT systems, like those at the Passport Agency last summer, had a "direct impact" on ordinary citizens, dependent on government services.

It added that the repeated failure of new computers systems had impaired the ability of public bodies to do their jobs properly.

The cost of overhauling the Passport Agency following last summer's chaos has resulted in the price of an adult passport being increased by £7.

The committee's report recommends more contingency planning to deal with failure and the adoption of less ambitious projects.

Errors are repeated

Committee chair David Davis said: "Basic errors are repeated time and time again but lessons do not seemed to have be learned.

"It is imperative that the government acts quickly to improve its record on the management of IT projects.

"Such projects are often delivered late or not at all; they come in over budget or fail to work as intended at the outset."

As well as the queues of holiday makers at the Passport Agency IT problems also hit elderly people waiting for pension payments, and widows seeking National Insurance payments.

The report said these two incidents were not isolated examples.

There were "more than 25 cases from the 1990s where the implementation of IT systems has resulted in delay, confusion and inconvenience to the citizen and, in many cases, poor value for money to the taxpayer".

Peformance under review

Cabinet Office minister Ian McCartney said the government was already "effectively tackling many of the issues raised".

He said: "In October, the prime minister asked me to head the first comprehensive review of government IT projects that has ever been undertaken.

"My new team in the Cabinet Office is tackling problems as soon as we find them, examining current and future projects to ensure the utmost is done to make systems run as smoothly as possible.

"If problems involving contractors or government departments arise, swift action will be taken."

The government would issue its corporate IT strategy later this year, he continued.

Mr McCartney also pointed out that 23 of the 26 projects or strategies mentioned in the report were agreed before the general election in May 1997.

Conservative spokesman on Cabinet Office issues Andrew Lansley said: "The increasing numbers of government IT project failures, as highlighted by this report, demonstrate that the government has not got to grips with the management of IT.

"It is time for ministers to secure more active, risk-taking involvement via the private sector in securing the delivery of new technologies in government services."