Former DCLG permanent secretary Peter Housden has been singled out by a parliamentary committee for emerging from the ‘complete failure' of the £500m FiReControl project with his career prospects seemingly undamaged.

Appointed the top civil servant in the Scottish government soon after the Coalition was formed in May 2010, Mr Housden became the DCLG's accounting officer in 2005, a year after the launch of the ill-fated scheme to consolidate 46 local fire and rescue services into nine purpose built regional control centres connected by a national computer system.