It was reassuring to read in this week's issue (20 May) that new Gartner research recognises that 'projects will fail, in large part because the poor quality of underlying data is not recognised or addressed'.  The quality of data is fundamental to the success of new government initiatives such as national ID cards, or the modernisation of the NHS.

I sincerely hope that PA Consulting will recognise that data quality needs to be much higher up the agenda when advising the government on the new ID cards scheme, otherwise the project will fail.

If, as Gartner states, 25 per cent of vital data in the world's top 1,000 businesses is inaccurate or incomplete, alarm bells should be ringing in the corridors of power about public sector data quality.  For example, we're still in the dark as to how the NHS will tackle this issue.

Adrian McKeon

Managing Director

Infoshare