The Cabinet Office has confirmed that work on Hazmod, a computer
network designed by the UK government to deal with potential terror
attacks has been stalled indefinitely, according to media reports
which cite e-mail newsletter E-Government Bulletin.
The Hazmod extranet was set up by the Cabinet Office's Civil
Contingency Secretariat and was scheduled to go live in 2002. It
was originally designed to help government departments and
emergency services to co-ordinate their efforts when dealing with
major disasters or other civil emergencies, such as terrorist
attacks.
The service, however, has still not been launched and the
Cabinet Office reportedly admitted that work on the project has
been stalled due to "internal management changes."
According to reports, however, local government planners
involved in the Hazmod project characterised it as a "disaster "
from the start, and claimed that a lack of funds together with
major technical problems were the real reasons behind the delays in
its development.
According to BBC News Online, the Cabinet Office claimed that
the project will be replaced by "faster and better" systems
available from government departments.
