Date | Event (including announcements or evidence given in Parliament) |
Oct 1996 | The Department started to procure a PFI contract to deliver the Libra project. |
Nov 1996 | The Department received 19 expressions of interest in response to a notice in the Official Journal of the European Communities. |
Sep 1997 | Two bidders (ICL and EDS) submitted detailed proposals. |
1 May 1998 | The Department invited bidders to submit their final tenders. |
May 1998 | EDS declined to submit a response to the Invitation to Tender thus withdrawing from the bidding process. |
27 May 1998 | ICL submitted the only bid for £146 million. |
Jul 1998 | ICL was chosen as the preferred bidder. |
Oct 1998 | ICL increased its bid from £146 million to £184 million. |
21 Dec 1998 | The Department awarded the contract to ICL after assessing ICL's offer as affordable and value for money. The contract was for £184 million over 10.5 years for ICL to provide a national IT infrastructure for magistrates' courts and to develop a standard national application to support court work. |
27 Jan 1999 | The Minister of State said in a written answer that the Libra contract had been awarded to ICL. |
Oct 1999 | ICL sought a renegotiation of the contract as its cash flow forecasts showed a £39 million deficit over the life of the deal. |
May 2000 | The Department and ICL signed a revised contract for £319 million over 14.5 years. The increased cost was mainly for an extra four years of service and for earlier roll-out of the infrastructure. |
Oct 2000 | Roll-out of the infrastructure started on schedule. |
Nov 2000 | ICL informed the Department that it would only be able to deliver criminal cases software to the first site in Suffolk by the target date of July 2001, with software for family and licensing cases to be delivered 10 weeks later. |
Feb 2001 | ICL informed the Department that it would be unable to deliver family and licensing software in the revised timescale, placing the July 2001 date in jeopardy. |
Feb 2001 | ICL terminated the contracts of some of the senior managers involved in the project and appointed a new senior management team. |
Jun 2001 | ICL told the Department that its forecast losses were now so high that it could not continue with the contract unless it was substantially renegotiated. |
Jun 2001 | A Gateway Review found the project to be in serious trouble and concluded that it was not in a fit state to pass the review. |
Jul 2001 | The Court Service, an Executive Agency of the Department, took over responsibility for the project. |
5 July 2001 | The Parliamentary Secretary said in a written answer that the software part of the project had been delayed by 15 to 18 months. |
31 Jul 2001 | ICL was in breach of the contract for failing to meet the delivery date for core software at the first site. The Department decided to negotiate with ICL rather than terminate the contract and sue for damages. The Department started to consider other options for continuing with Libra. |
Sep 2001 | ICL told the Department that its maximum potential loss on the project was £200 million and that it would repudiate the contract unless the Department negotiated to cover the loss. |
5 Oct 2001 | The Department and ICL signed a legally binding Memorandum of Understanding, which placed the Department in a less favourable position than simply continuing with the existing contractual arrangements and relying on its contractual rights. |
8 Feb 2002 | ICL proposed a new price of £400 million for the enhanced infrastructure and full core application. The Department considered that this price was not affordable and did not provide value for money. This conclusion was endorsed by a second Gateway Review. |
Feb 2002 | After further negotiations, ICL reduced its price to £384 million. The Department could not reach agreement, on grounds of value for money and affordability, for ICL to continue with the whole contract. |
April 2002 | ICL changed its name to Fujitsu Services. |
21 May 2002 | The Parliamentary Secretary said in a written answer that the contract was currently under renegotiation and it was not yet possible to indicate the outcome. |
27 May 2002 | The Lord Chancellor said in a written answer that the Government had no intention of allowing Libra to fail. The software application had been delayed and discussions were under way with Fujitsu Services (formerly ICL). |
24 Jun 2002 | The Accounting Officer told the Committee of Public Accounts that the Department was negotiating with Fujitsu Services (formerly ICL) about the software package but that the negotiations had not finished. |
8 Jul 2002 | The Parliamentary Secretary said in a written answer that a decision on the best way forward for the Libra project was expected shortly. |
9 July 2002 | The Accounting Officer supplied the Committee of Public Accounts with a note in confidence on the Libra project, and said that an announcement on the outcome of the negotiations was expected before the Summer Recess. |
23 Jul 2002 | The Department signed a revised contract with Fujitsu Services (formerly ICL) for £232 million over 8.5 years to supply only the infrastructure element of Libra. |
23 Jul 2002 | The Accounting Officer provided the Committee of Public Accounts with an updated note on the Libra project and said that the revised contract had been signed and that an announcement would be made the next day in the House. |
24 Jul 2002 | The Lord Chancellor and the Parliamentary Secretary announced in written answers the variation to the contract with Fujitsu Services (formerly ICL) and the intention to procure application services separately. |
Jan 2003 | The Department intends to sign a separate contract with STL to develop the core software application. |
Apr 2003 | Roll-out of the infrastructure is due to be completed. |
End of 2003 | The Department intends to appoint a systems integrator to roll out the application. |
End of 2004 | Roll-out of the new application should be mostly complete. |
31 Mar 2007 | End of Fujitsu Services contract term. |