Opposition politicians on Tuesday renewed their calls for a review of the £12.7bn ($20.3bn) National Health Service programme to create an electronic patient record amid evidence that the much-delayed programme has fallen yet further behind.

Stephen O’Brien, shadow health minister, said the “hugely expensive” programme was “desperately behind schedule”. Yet ministers “refuse to be accountable for it”, he said, repeatedly declining to answer detailed questions on the grounds of commercial confidentiality.