As part of the drive to cut public spending Alistair Darling has intimated a possible postponement of the £13bn NHS IT project Connecting for Health in Wednesday's pre-budget report.
The chancellor mentioned the IT scheme, which is supposed to centralise all medical records in on one database, as he said in interviews over the weekend that public spending would be "a lot tighter" under proposals to be set out in his pre-budget report on Wednesday.
The Conservatives – who have been calling for the NHS IT project to be scrapped – welcomed the announcement, which they said was a U-turn.
They added that although the new NHS computer system was originally only intended to cost £2.3bn, it was now more than 10 years late and was expected to cost more than £12.7bn.
"After seven years, Labour have finally acknowledged what we've said for years – that the procurement for the NHS was costing billions and not delivering," said Andrew Lansley, the shadow health secretary. "This is another government IT procurement disaster."
The Tories said the government had spent £100bn on IT since 1997 and contracts worth another £70bn were due to be renewed or commissioned over the next two years. They said a Conservative government would put those projects on hold.
Darling did not comment on reports that he was considering imposing a windfall tax on bank bonuses, but he did say that the tax system had to be "fair".
