Balfour denies claims of 12-day IT lock-out

Balfour Beatty has played down rumours that major parts of its operations were locked out of the group's IT network for 12 working days as a result of problems with its Oracle software.

It follows reports from a source who told CJ: "There was an error on the Oracle database, although I am sure the company will blame the hardware while Oracle will blame Balfour for not taking back-ups."

"More than a thousand users were affected when the Oracle database tools failed to recover the situation in Balfour major projects/civils, the construction (Scotland) operation and part of Balfour's specialist housing wing."

A Balfour spokeswoman dismissed the claim. "You are barking up the wrong tree. It was an IT hardware problem and it was nowhere near 12 days," she said.

She said that the list of divisions affected was also incorrect. When invited to offer a correction, she said: "I won't list them."