?1bn wasted' on failed IT projects

More than £1bn of taxpayers' money has been squandered in a series of high-profile government IT failures since Labour came to power, according to research published today.

Public technology disasters such as the scrapped benefit cards payment system, the new air traffic control centre at Swanwick and the national insurance recording system have been a huge drain on the public purse, the survey compiled by Computing magazine reveals.

The findings will strengthen demands from opposition parties and independent technology experts for a radical overhaul of the way contracts are handled. They want more transparency in awarding contracts and more accountability if things go wrong.

Richard Allan, the Liberal Democrats' IT spokesman, said: "We ought to see some blood on the carpet when things go wrong."

Although contracts for many of the biggest failures were signed when the Conservatives were in power, Alan Duncan, the shadow technology minister, accused the government of wasting "hundreds of millions on doing things badly".

The research comes as another computing magazine, Computer Weekly, reveals that the police's new non-emergency minor crime notification system, which cost £600,000, is facing criticism from insiders for being poorly thought out and rushed into service to meet political deadlines.

The system, the brainchild of former Home Office minister Charles Clarke, is to be launched in a few weeks. It will link to all 51 UK police forces and is designed to save officers' time by allowing the public to report minor thefts and criminal damage electronically.