MR ANDREW ROLLERSON

7 MARCH 2007

  Q280  Mr Khan: You have approached lawyers?

  Mr Rollerson: Yes, I have approached lawyers.

  Q281  Mr Khan: Have you retained lawyers?

  Mr Rollerson: Not at this point.

  Q282  Mr Khan: Have you sought advice as to whether you should come to this Committee to give evidence?

  Mr Rollerson: I have not, no, because I made the assumption that it was not something which I was able to question.

  Mr Khan: We are not in the habit of asking people who have not worked on a project for more than a year to come and give evidence, so I thought you may have sought advice on whether you needed to come and give evidence yourself.

  Chairman: He was summoned by us.

  Q283  Mr Khan: I know, that is why I asked if he sought advice. You did not deem it fit to seek advice?

  Mr Rollerson: Not about my attendance at this Committee.

  Q284  Mr Khan: Did you speak to Tony Collins before he wrote his article for Computer Weekly?

  Mr Rollerson: No, I did not.

  Q285  Mr Khan: The first you knew of his article was when you saw it in Computer Weekly?

  Mr Rollerson: No, the first I knew about it was when the communications manager of the NHS account rang me to let me know what was about to appear in Computer Weekly.

  Q286  Mr Khan: Is there anything in this article that you disagree with?

  Mr Rollerson: I suppose I agree fundamentally with the whole thing.

  Q287  Mr Khan: Do you accept the caricature of you as a heroic whistleblower taking on an employer who seeks to make billions of pounds from this contract to bring to the attention of the Committee of Public Accounts and others the huge problems the IT contract faces?

  Mr Rollerson: Can you repeat the question?

  Q288  Mr Khan: Do you see yourself as a heroic whistleblower who is bringing to the attention of the public and the PAC a doomed project from which your employers will make a huge sum of money?

  Mr Rollerson: Absolutely not. I do not believe that I am a whistleblower and I do not believe the programme is doomed.

  Q289  Mr Khan: Do you see yourself as somebody seeking to jump on a bandwagon knowing that there is now disquiet and concern about the project to make yourself more marketable?

  Mr Rollerson: Certainly not. I am discomfited by the situation which I find myself in.

  Q290  Mr Khan: Do you think you are in a position to give expert opinion on a project you have had no hands-on experience within for the last 12 months and more?

  Mr Rollerson: I do for the reasons that I stated earlier.

  Q291  Mr Khan: Can you name the people working on the project that you said you have spoken to in your capacity as a hands-off person involved who told you the project was a disaster?

  Mr Rollerson: I am sorry, can you repeat that?

  Q292  Mr Khan: In answer to the Chairman you accepted that you had no direct experience of this work any more, but you said you came into routine daily contact with people working on the project who had told you it was disastrous.

  Mr Rollerson: No, I did not say that at all.

  Q293  Mr Khan: What did you say?

  Mr Rollerson: I said I am in routine daily contact with the people who are on the ground operating in trusts, I did not say that they viewed the project as a disaster.

  Q294  Mr Khan: None of them have given you a negative opinion of the project implementation?

  Mr Rollerson: People have expressed a wide variety of opinions, some of them negative, of course.

  Q295  Mr Khan: What astounds me is that somebody like yourself managed to get the attention you have got by giving a hearsay speech based on what people have told you and you have got no direct experience of recent work in this area.

  Mr Rollerson: They were direct employees of mine, I hired them.

  Q296  Mr Khan: Who are they?

  Mr Rollerson: I could go through a long list.

  Q297  Mr Khan: Just give us 10 of those people.

  Mr Rollerson: Is it appropriate to name individuals?

  Q298  Mr Khan: I think it is.

  Mr Rollerson: I will do it but is it appropriate for me to do so?

  Mr Khan: I think it is, Chairman. This man comes here and tells us that he has heard from others who have experience and do know what they are talking about who have told him that they have got concerns about this project.

  Q299  Chairman: Would you give us this list in private?

  Mr Rollerson: I would be happy to do it here. I could rattle off a list of names now if the Committee wishes, but I could also provide it as a note.