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Public Accounts

Well, there we are. Perhaps he made the mistake of standing up to a Minister on the first occasion; we do not know. The single farm payment scheme represented government at its worst, but a fortnight ago the Committee praised the introduction of the first generation of e-passports. That showed that the public sector can successfully deliver a major scheme to time, cost and quality. It was good to see the Identity and Passport Service taking on all the recommendations made by our predecessors. Planning from the outset was for a cautious, low-risk project of which my hon. Friend the Member for South Norfolk (Mr. Bacon) would approve, featuring substantial testing and sufficient time for a progressive roll-out rather than a big bang, a switch and the job was done. There are lessons in that which could well be learned throughout Whitehall.