Home Office to present ESN review in the Summer

She added that “In that review, we’re working through each of [the programme’s] projects and getting underneath the dependencies and the critical path of each of those projects so we can build our level of confidence in the integrated project plan.

Davinson said that where the programme has had problems in the past had generally been where it lacked enough detail to sufficiently understand the relationships between its different components and that the Home Office is “going through that work now”.

“In addition, we’re looking at alternative approaches to delivery and specifically at how we can get some capability out into the hands of the users early.” She said that this will help build users’ confidence in the programme, gives the Home Office the opportunity to receive feedback during the development process, and means that users who just require data (such as some ambulance users) could get some early benefits from ESN.

Meg Hillier, chair of the Public Accounts Committee suggested that the National Audit Office to conduct another overview of the whole programme as part of its query and the NAO’s comptroller and auditor general, Amyas Morse, was present. Hillier said: “while it is not within my powers to tell [him] what to do, I think he’s heard our suggestion very firmly...”