Not Fit for Purpose

Any single mother locking horns with the Child Support Agency for maintenance from their father; any farmer nearly bankrupted waiting for rural support payments; any junior doctor left jobless by the new online recruitment procedure - all will testify as to the endless delay, bureaucratic paralysis, computer breakdowns and blithering incompetence that characterise the government's dealings with us. And anyone who reads the newspapers might infer similar problems from recent fiascos concerning foreign prisoners, dentists' contracts, data transfer fiascos and tax credits - not to mention the looming introduction of ID cards: a litany of cock-ups commemorated with a string of exasperated reports from the long-suffering Commons Public Accounts Committee. Why is government nowadays incapable of organising even the proverbial social event in a brewery? Why does it waste vast amounts of money in the process? If big companies can commission IT systems that work, why can't the civil service? In this lively, shocking and immensely illuminating book, Richard Bacon looks at ten notorious government fiascos, and the considerable effort that went into creating them.
Richard Bacon is MP for South Norfolk. This is his first book.