Public Accounts Committee
Report - the Defence Information Infrastructure (DII)
MINISTRY OF DEFENCE
News Release (008/2009) issued by COI News Distribution Service. 15
January 2009
The Defence
Information Infrastructure (DII) is a major IT programme which is
already delivering benefits to the UK's front-line troops and
to the wider Ministry of Defence (MoD). It is one of the largest
IT projects in Europe and will provide a single, secure and
coherent computer infrastructure across the whole of Defence while
maintaining essential operational continuity.
Today's PAC report acknowledges that the performance of the
DII programme has improved.
Commenting on the report, MOD Permanent Secretary, Sir Bill
Jeffrey said:
"The DII programme is one of the largest in Government. It
has taken longer to deliver then we had intended, but it is being
rolled out across the Department and is already delivering
benefits. We are confident that remaining problems will be
overcome, with the help of our commercial partners in the Atlas
consortium. We have already overcome some complex challenges, and
have learned the lessons of the early stages of the project. As
the PAC report notes, the commercial structure of the programme is
robust, and costs have been kept within 3% of the original budget."
The DII programme is on track to enable benefits of £1.5 billion
over 10 years and has already delivered:
* Improvements to the operation of existing MOD systems;
* delivery of two early new capabilities to forces in Afghanistan;
* introduction of "Single Point Of Contact" help desk
facilities providing an improved service to MoD users;
Notes to Editors:
1. The DII Programme will deliver a single, secure, coherent and
high quality computer infrastructure service across the whole of
defence: 300,000 users, 140,000 terminals across 2,000 sites
worldwide. The current contract runs to 2015 with all new major
capabilities in place by 2010.
2. The recent National Audit Office report recognised the
progress of the DII programme. In its July report the NAO noted
that the programme performed well against the checklist in the
Comptroller and Auditor General's 2006 report, Delivering
Successful IT-Enabled Business Change. In the Comptroller and
Auditor General's report, Delivering Successful IT-Enabled
Business Change, (HC 33-I, 17 November 2006), a checklist of nine
questions was provided to assist Departments embarking on major IT programmes.
3. In line with OGC principles, MOD believes that the chief
measure of a programme should be the benefits it delivers and
although late delivery of DII terminals has resulted in delay to
the introduction of some more efficient and effective ways of
working, the programme continues to enable financial benefits
across the department and has successfully delivered early
capability to frontline troops.
4. In spite of rollout delays the associated benefits through
other programmes remain in the order of £1.5Bn over the 10 year
programme and the DII Programme has constrained cost increases to 3%.
5. The DII concept allows for users to logon at any site
worldwide, reducing the need to physically transport data thereby
addressing some of the data handling challenges which the Dept faces.
6. For more information contact Darragh McElroy in the MoD Press
office on 020 7218 7909 or visit the website http://www.mod.uk.