Members of Northern Ireland’s Public Accounts Committee have warned of “persistent systemic weaknesses” in the management of major IT projects across the Northern Ireland Civil Service.
Their latest report says public services and billions of pounds are being placed at risk because of longstanding failures in strategic planning, continued reliance on outdated legacy systems and a lack of collective leadership and accountability.
The PAC report says that between April 2022 and March 2025, departments in Northern Ireland and their arm’s-length bodies managed 29 major IT projects with a combined whole-life cost of more than £5.2bn.
However, it warns that persistent weaknesses are driving delays, rising costs and avoidable contract extensions in these projects. Continued reliance on legacy IT systems is described as “a major concern”, increasing risks to service delivery and limiting modernisation.
MLAs – as Northern Ireland Assembly members are known – noted that the NICS lags the UK civil service in the development of a legacy IT risk-assessment framework. “There is a lack of understanding in Northern Ireland of the extent to which legacy IT systems are used or the risks they pose to the effective and efficient delivery of services,” they said.
PAC members also described themselves as “frustrated” by a perceived “unwillingness” on the part of senior leaders to work and deliver collectively.
“The committee considers that the current arrangements demonstrate a level of disregard for the importance of accountability within the civil service for the billions of pounds spent on these projects,” members said. “It has serious concerns over the current fragmented approach and lack of appetite to articulate a clear vision, identify priorities and set consistent principles to ensure interoperability of systems, exploit potential synergies and avoid unnecessary duplication of effort.”
Of the 29 programmes covered by the report, PAC members highlighted the £1.99bn Encompass Programme, which aims to deliver a single digital health and care record for every citizen, as a particular area of worry.
The committee said it had identified ongoing concerns about the completeness, accuracy and reliability of the programme’s data, which undermines confidence in the programme’s reported benefits.
“The committee is concerned that the reporting deficit could enable poor performance to go unchallenged in trusts, restrict the Department of Health’s ability to hold trusts to account and reduce the reliability and transparency of key performance statistics in the public domain,” the report said. “This issue must be resolved as a priority to enable the benefits of such significant investment to be maximised, and to ensure performance is monitored effectively for the benefit of healthcare patients.”
Among their recommendations, PAC members said an “overarching IT, digital and data strategy” for the NICS should be developed within the next 12 months, setting out the vision, ambitions and priorities for departments. MLAs said it is “vital” that legacy IT risk assessments are completed in all departments within the next six months and reported to departmental boards so that action plans to manage issues can be put in place.
In relation to the Encompass Programme, committee members said Northern Ireland’s Department of Health should aim to have “robust data” publicly available within the next six months at the latest.
PAC chair Daniel McCrossan said members found it “deeply frustrating” to see the same weaknesses highlighted “time and time again” across different inquiries.
“Persistent failures in planning, oversight and leadership continue to expose public services, and the public purse, to unnecessary risk and cost,” he said. “There has been a fragmented approach to managing major IT projects, with limited coordination and no clear, shared vision across departments. That must change.”
Northern Ireland’s Department of Finance, which leads on digital transformation within the NICS, noted the committee’s findings and said its recommendations would be considered.
A spokesperson said: “We remain committed to working across the NICS and wider public sector to strengthen digital delivery, improve oversight and ensure value for money from investment in major IT and transformation programmes.”