Public and Commercial Services Union

4 March 2009

This briefing provides an update on the latest activities with DII. It will cover:

• PCS campaigning and EDM
• DII users survey
• Timetable for future DII increments
• Meeting with minister to discuss job security

PCS campaigning and EDM 741

Following publication of the highly critical Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report on DII, the PCS parliamentary group put down an Early Day Motion (EDM) calling on MP’s to support calls from PCS, that in light of the PAC report and the ongoing problems with DII, further work should not be given to the ATLAS consortium, and that options to improve current IT systems using in house capability should be considered as a more efficient and cost effective option.

The EDM has been tabled as EDM 741 and has already been signed by many MP’s. PCS would like as many MP’s as possible to sign the EDM so we are asking members to write to their MP to highlight PCS’ concerns about DII and to ask them to sign up to the EDM and to write to the Defence secretary to register their concerns.

Attached to this briefing is a model letter for members to send to their MP. Members may also wish to add a section of their own experiences with DII, highlighting the problems they and their colleagues have encountered. If members are unsure of the name of their MP then they can use they can find out the name of their MP on the parliament website.

Customer satisfaction survey 2008

The MOD recently published the results of a DII/F customer satisfaction survey for 2008 on the Defence Intranet.

Not surprisingly the results were far from being a ringing endorsement for DII/F. Nearly 60% of those who responded were less than satisfied overall with DII/F. Two areas singled out for particular complaints were: overall system response time and support and processing times for the service catalogue.

This survey is yet another indicator that DII/F is simply not delivering what it should be and gives more weight to out arguments that unless ATLAS can demonstrate it is capable of delivering DII/F in an efficient and cost effective manner then more work should not just be handed over to ATLAS and serious consideration given to looking at whether some or all of DII/F could be delivered in –house.

DII/F timetable: Future increments

The MOD have now signed the contract with ATLAS for Increment 2c, top secret systems. This will see 12 posts transfer to EDS and those staff affected should have been notified. The transfer is expected to take place on 1st August 2009. PCS will meet with the MOD shortly to discuss the transfer arrangements.

If it goes ahead, the planned vesting day for Increment 2c, the remainder of fixed capability, is now slated for 1st October 2009, this has been brought forward from previous estimates. However the MOD has still to complete the COEAIA process, whereby other options, including in house options have to be considered. PCS will be meeting the MOD next month to discuss this.

At the time of writing PCS is still not aware that a formal decision has been given to go ahead with including high grade messaging as part of DII/F. PCS hopes to have clarity of this issue very soon.

Job security: meeting with the minister

PCS recently met with the minister for DE&S to discuss our concerns about former MOD staff TUPE transferred to ATLAS were now facing compulsory redundancy, and also job security for staff who may transfer as part of future DII increments.

PCS argued the MOD had a responsibility for those staff that recently transferred and they should offer those staff at risk of or made compulsorily redundant the chance to apply for reinstatement back into the MOD. We also argued that in future increments where it was known staff were being transferred into a redundancy situation; they should if they wished be placed in the redeployment pool at least six months before transfer.

The minister was sympathetic to our arguments and asked his officials to look into the practicalities of offering a reinstatement service and allowing staff due to be transferred at risk of redundancy to be placed in the redeployment pool.

The MOD has since been back in touch to say they will look into the PPPA setting up a reinstatement service. However this was unlikely to be able to happen quickly but would provide a permanent solution for former MOD staff seeking reinstatement.

PCS will be looking to hold further discussions on both reinstatement and use of the redeployment pool in the near future.

Next steps

Despite all the problems, the MOD seems determined to go ahead with giving more DII work to ATLAS. This makes it even more important for members to bring this matter to the attention of MP’s.

The Defence select committee, is still we understand looking to investigate DII. It would help us greatly if members were able to forward to us their own examples of problems with DII which we can then bring to the attention of the committee. Could members please send their examples to Nick Radiven at nick@pcs.org.uk

In the meantime PCS will continue to press the MOD to be able to full justify any further outsourcing of DII/F work, and where this does happen to try and make sure the MOD doesn’t just transfer staff into a redundancy situation and that all options to help these staff are put in place.

Model letter to MPs

 

[Insert name of MP] MP
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA

[Insert date]

Dear [insert name of MP],

MOD’s Defence Information Infrastructure

I am writing to you as my constituency MP to ask for your assistance regarding the Defence Information Infrastructure (DII) project. I am a member of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) employed by the Ministry of Defence at [insert name of site] and I am extremely concerned about how badly this IT project has been managed by the private consortium running the contract.

The DII Programme began in March 2005 and will cost an estimated £7.1 billion by 2015, if fully implemented. The project aims to replace hundreds of existing IT systems with a single system covering the entire armed forces. The contract for DII was awarded to the ATLAS consortium led by EDS.

A recent report by the Public Accounts Committee has highlighted concerns previously identified by my union PCS that DII suffered from bad planning from the start and was now 18 months behind schedule. For example, whereas 62,800 terminals should have been installed by the end of July 2007, only 45,600 were in place at the end of September 2008. A range of core software such as word processing, email, internet access and security to run on the new system should all have been delivered in June 2006. However, less than half of the requirement had been delivered two years later in June 2008.

The report also criticises ATLAS for underestimating the complexity of the software it had agreed to create and for being unable to deliver a system that could safely handle secret material for over two years.

Due to these problems, the Department’s existing computer systems have had to be used for longer than intended, with the increased risk that one or more of them will fail.

A recent Customer User Satisfaction Survey found that nearly 60% of MoD staff who responded were less than satisfied with the performance of ATLAS DII/F.

It is also alarming that the cost of DII has already overrun by £182 million. The estimated total cost of the programme is now estimated at £7.1 billion when at the outset of the programme in 2005 the MoD estimated total costs to be £2.3 billion, a huge increase.

I also have concerns over the future of colleagues of mine who have already transferred over to ATLAS. 53 staff have already been issued with compulsory redundancy notices and it is likely more will follow. It is concerning that even though these staff are employed by EDS the MoD will be funding any redundancy packages. Surely hard working civil servants should not have been privatised simply to then be made redundant when they could have been employed elsewhere in the MoD.

There are very real risks that the failures of DII could pose to current IT systems and data security in the MoD. I cannot understand why, despite the failures identified, the MoD still plans to award ATLAS with further DII work! If you could write to the Defence Secretary on this subject I would be very grateful. Please urge him not to award any further work to ATLAS and to instead look at improving current IT systems by using our in house capabilities.

I would also urge you to sign early day motion 741 in support of the committee’s concerns about DII.

Yours sincerely

 

[Insert your name]