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Government IT and Software Procurement

IT procurement within Government is thought to be an unmitigated disaster, but that is not true. There is good and bad procurement in Government, just as there is in the private sector, and mistakes made in the private sector are sometimes similar to those made in the public sector. Nevertheless, Governments have wasted a lot of money on IT over the years, with a number large of projects being overspent or overrun, and from time to time stuff has been bought that is not fit for purpose. A consensus is now emerging about what good procurement is that is supported by the Office of Government Commerce among others. The view is that good procurement should be competitive and should result in an effective partnership; software should be adjusted to the needs of the users—those who, at the end of the day, have to operate it—and it should be capable of being updated and adjusted economically. Four things ought to be avoided. The first is a lock-in, an indefinite commitment to a single proprietary solution—endless licensing renewal that the Government simply cannot get out of. Secondly, there must obviously be interoperability; its absence will always be a problem, because it limits the growth and integration of whatever software has been bought, as well as one's choice of supplier. Thirdly, it is preferable to have access to the source code, so that if necessary people can understand what they have. Finally, it is extraordinarily helpful to have a good skills base on the client side, so that people know what they are dealing with. On that basis, one would expect the Government to have made use of the growing British open-source software industry, which is by and large highly successful, although there are exceptions. It is successful in a number of operations known to all, such as eBay, Amazon, banks and stock exchanges and so on. However, a propos such technology, we have a rather peculiar position. There is a lot of tokenism and talk about what benefits it may have, and there are policies aplenty, and I do not think that anyone would argue with the policies per se. However, there is relatively little pick-up of and involvement with open source by the Government compared to the private sector and other EU Governments. That is somewhat peculiar, because it is alleged that substantial savings can be made through the wider application of open-source and non-proprietary software. The hon. Member for Tatton (Mr. Osborne) made something of that some time ago, and I agreed with him—indeed, I might have thought it before him—when he said on behalf of the Conservative party that a 5 per cent. reduction in the Government IT bill could be arranged if only open source were seriously considered. The alternative, which applies across many Departments, is the tendency to have memorandums of understanding with big companies, often foreign and usually American. There is a close association between that side of the industry and the Government—an association that is personal, consultative and advisory. The House will be aware that the former Prime Minister launched the Labour business manifesto at Microsoft. Hon. Members will also be aware that, on the International Business Advisory Council formed by the current Prime Minister, there sits the owner and founder of Microsoft. However, that is not the only problem. Tendering processes and thresholds for the submission of tenders applied by the Government actually exclude many companies—not only open-source companies but many smaller companies and small and medium-sized enterprises. For example, one thinks of the British Educational Communication and Technology Agency agreement for educational software. The crucial and damning aspect of the Government's treatment of certain sectors of the industry is that many of the applications chosen by Departments are locked into and tilted towards well-known proprietary solutions. I shall give some examples. The Driving Standards Agency driving theory CD-ROM can be used only on Windows computers. The Revenue website has limited functionality for the Firefox web browser, the most popular alternative to Internet Explorer and one that some would argue is more secure. The Department for Work and Pensions online benefits system can be accessed only by those who have a Windows computer. Those who have Unix or Linux computers or who use Mac computers should simply not bother. Technically, the Government gateway is owned by Microsoft, and there is a certain amount of co-advertising of products between the Government's chosen solutions and the providers of those solutions that, at times, is close to being product placement. I believe that things are worse than that, however. We accept that, like many industries, the software industry is a free market, and that the free market has various desirable outcomes and can bestow great benefits. However, free markets do not prevent monopolies. Worse still, they do not prevent the misuse of monopoly or quasi-monopoly power. They do not prevent predatory pricing or the stifling of real competition; nor do they provide absolute protection for consumers, so that they can have long-standing alternative choices. That is why the Government regulate, as do other bodies throughout the world. The United States has its anti-trust laws, and the European Union has its competition regulations. The Minister will be aware that the US Department of Justice and the attorney generals of 20 states sued Microsoft in order that they became what I might call a more open partner in the free economy. Classically, the Court of First Instance in the EU fined Microsoft for non-competitive or anti-competitive behaviour.