When appearing before the Public Accounts Committee to explain the latest government cock up, a senior civil servant will often make remarks such as 'a valuable lesson has been learned'. This means nothing; government will go on making the same old mistakes.

I.T. systems provide a classic example. Recently the Public Accounts Committee produced a report based on 25 National Audit Office reports of failed IT systems. Time after time the same mistakes were being repeated in spite of the fact that there is a Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (now subsumed under the Office of Government Commerce), which should have co-ordinated systems development and learned from mistakes. One classic mistake is the persistent use of I.T. firms with a very poor track record.

The computer project that is likely to be the biggest failure yet, by far is the National Programme for I.T. in the NHS. It was admitted a year ago that the final cost would be at least £12.4 billion, but this does not include the costs born out of trust budgets. It is two years behind already, and any real benefits have yet to be seen. One feature of the project is the excessive degree of secrecy.

Another sphere where lessons are not being learned is the use of the private sector - especially the Private Finance Initiative, which has been delivering very poor value for money and appalling quality.

The handling of the foot and mouth outbreak in 2001 is a further example of failure to learn. A detailed report on the 1964 outbreak was prepared, which amongst other things recommended selective use of inoculation rather than mass culling. This seemed to have been forgotten and the contingency plans seemed to be in a poor state.