§ Mr. KaufmanTo ask the President of the Board of Trade how much her Department spent on IT, itemising(a) personal computers, (b) main-frame, (c) minicomputers and (d) file servers in the last year for which figures are available. [52881]
§ Dr. HowellsThe last year for which figures are available is the 1997/98 financial year. The figures are inclusive of purchases that have been made on behalf of the Government Offices, the Insolvency Service, and the Employment Tribunal Service. However, no account is taken of purchases by other Executive Agencies, which manage their own budgets and for which no central record of purchasing is maintained.
In 1997/98 the Department spent £8,318,000 on IT Technology. Of this, £5,037,000 was spent on PCs and £414,000 was spent on file servers. There were no purchases of mainframes or mini-computers. All figures are exclusive of VAT.