Laura Rohde

One of the centerpiece projects in the massive IT infrastructure upgrade of the U.K. National Health Service (NHS) is not only running behind schedule but also risks losing the support of doctors and other health workers due to a lack of engagement with the medical profession, the public spending watchdog for the U.K. government warned in a report published Wednesday.

The saga of the European Union (E.U.) software patent directive has continued unabated into the New Year with some Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) backing an initiative to pull the plug on the directive, which is currently awaiting a vote in the Council of the E.U., and start afresh with the entire legislative process.

The U.K. government will launch a Parliamentary inquiry next year into the practicalities of electronic voting.

The U.K. government is promising local authorities that they stand to save around

BT Group PLC will take full control of Albacom SpA, one of Italy's first alternative telecommunications operators, by buying out its three partners in a deal worth at least

The European Union (E.U.) is on track to begin including biometric identifiers in the passports issued by its member nations. The biometric data is also expected to include, by 2008, fingerprints, though E.U. officials are debating whether the fingerprint data should be made obligatory.

IT system failures continued to plague the U.K. government this week, when as many as 80,000 civil servants working for the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) had to deal with what is being described in the local press as the biggest computer crash in government history.

The U.K. government's high-tech plans for ID cards using biometric technology was announced Tuesday in the Queen's Speech, amid the traditional pomp and pageantry of the annual opening of the U.K. Parliament.