Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: Cabinet Office

Oral Answers to Questions

Bernard Jenkin Excerpts
Wednesday 11th December 2013

(10 years, 11 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Nick Hurd Portrait Mr Hurd
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I have to tell the hon. Gentleman that the real world we inherited was an absolute shambles in terms of how Government managed IT transactions. His is the party that gave us tax credits and the NHS IT system. What we have done is to put in proper controls and create the conditions in which smaller and leaner organisations can come in and offer better value.

Bernard Jenkin Portrait Mr Bernard Jenkin (Harwich and North Essex) (Con)
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May I commend my hon. Friend the Minister and the Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General for the excellent work they have done in ICT? But is it not still ludicrously impossible to get around the silly Treasury rules about recruiting, retaining and rewarding the necessary staff with the necessary expertise to be the single responsible owners with continuous oversight of projects? Does that not show that civil service reform has not gone nearly far enough, and that that justifies a commission on the future of the civil service that only Parliament can provide?