HC Deb 19 October 1989 vol 158 cc182-3W
Mr. Warren

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many officials in his Department at grade 3 and above have, since promotion to the level of grade 3, attended a course(a) specifically on information technology and (6) containing an element of information technology; and what percentage each represents of all the staff in those grades in his Department.

Mr. Hurd

Eleven officials at grade 3 level and above have since attaining that grade attended a course specifically on information technology. Four of those 11, plus a further four, have attended a course containing an element of information technology. These figures represent 41 per cent. and 30 per cent. respectively of staff in those grades.

Mr. Warren

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many work stations excluding stand-alone word processors are currently installed in his Department; and what is the ratio of such work stations to civil servants.

Mr. Hurd

At present there are some 3,200 computer work stations in the Department. This represents about one terminal for every 13 staff in post or, excluding the prison service (which accounts for some 3 to 4 of the Department's complement) one for every four staff. "Work station" is here taken to include linked terminals and stand-alone microcomputers (including those used partly for word-processing) but to exclude dedicated word-processors and other portable text processors.

Mr. Warren

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which Minister in his Department is responsible for day-to-day management of his Department's information technology strategy; and what proportion of his time was spent on this matter in the month up to Friday 13 October.

Mr. Hurd

The Home Office, because of the heterogeneous nature of its business, does not have one single ITs strategy but a number of strategies geared to the needs of different businesses or areas of the office. Ministers overseeing particular areas of the office concern themselves, as part of that responsibility, with the application of IT to them. It is not practicable to apportion the part of ministerial time specifically devoted to IT aspects of the work.