§ Dr. KumarTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many computers were replaced in his Department in each of the past three years; how the replaced units were disposed of and by which companies; and at what cost. [60750]
§ Yvette CooperIt is the policy of the Lord Chancellor's Department to try to make surplus IT equipment available to schools and other non-profit making bodies at low cost. In disposing of its computers therefore, the Department uses Recycle-IT! the UK's largest computer re-use project. They supply second-user systems tailored to the needs of the voluntary, church, education and disabled organisations, embryonic businesses and Third World countries. As Recycle-IT! do not charge for this service, there is no cost to the Department for disposing of redundant equipment.
The following table relates to the limited number of PCs owned and managed directly by the Department. It shows the total number of computers disposed of in each of the last three financial years. It also shows the total number of those computers, which were replaced along with the cost of the replacement computers.
775W
Disposed Replaced Cost of replacement 1999–2000 302 151 103,000 2000–01 415 365 435,660 2001–02 84 0 0 Total 801 516 538,660 The Departments PFI partners own the majority of the IT equipment used. The contract stipulates that 70 per cent. of the equipment provided under the contract must be no more than three years old, and that none should be more than five years old. There are currently 2,800 PC's and laptop computers provided by our PFI supplier. The Department also encourages its PFI partners to use Recycle-IT!