The Lord Chancellor's Department has been castigated by MPs over a private finance deal described as possibly "the shoddiest ever".

The "Libra" project to link magistrates courts on a single IT network contained "truly basic mistakes," according to Edward Leigh of the Commons public accounts committee.

The single bidder, Fujitsu Services, saw its price rise from an agreed cost of £146 million in July 1998 to a final bill of £319 million in May 2000, the National Audit Office reported.