Tories plan end to massive IT projects

David Cameron has promised an end to "hubristic" large-scale IT projects under a Conservative government.

The Tory leader said his party would follow the private-sector practice of 'open standards', allowing IT contracts to be split into modular components.

This would mean an end to single bespoke projects like the database at the heart of the government's multi-billion pound NHS IT upgrade, he said.

"Never again could there be projects like Labour's hubristic NHS supercomputer," he told the National Endowment for Science, Technology and Arts in London.

He referred to open-source pioneers Linux, developers of a successful operating system, as an example of how "information liberation" could be beneficial in "the new economy".

"We want to see how open source methods can help overcome the massive problems in government IT programmes.

"The basic reason for these problems is Labour's addiction to the mainframe model - large, centralised systems for the management of information.

"From the NHS computer to the new Child Support Agency, they rely on 'closed' IT systems that reduce competitive pressures and lead to higher risks and higher costs.

"We will follow private sector best practice which is to introduce 'open standards' that enables IT contracts to be split up into modular components."

He went on: "We will create a level playing field for open source software in IT procurement and open up the procurement system to small and innovative companies," he said.