There is also the "lost in translation" factor. A lot of British companies are outsourcing their programming to India and no matter how good their english or the translators Urdu some of the subtlties in the language are lost and therefore mistakes are made. The other factor is that the British government has no understanding of computers. They know that they are a good idea and that they can make life easier but do not understand them and so the government makes mistakes regarding the programmes. Also i suspect that the contracts to create these programmes are going to the cheapest bid (not necessarily the cheapest upon completion) and not the best qualified to do the work and so the british people do not get what they pay for. Government contracts are a license to print money as they never put in any penalty clause for going over budget or over time. The other problem with the Government and computers is that they do not teach anyone common sense security i.e. If you have sensitive data on removable media you do not send it via courier nor do you leave it in your computer. It should be locked away over night and sent in a secure fashion.