§ Mr. HealdTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to his answer, ref. 88450, on the cost of new PCs installed in his Department, if he will provide a breakdown of the figure of £156.7 million into the cost of the(a) machines, (b) software and (c) network; how many machines were installed; what the average cost of each machine was; and if he will provide a breakdown of the figure of £58.5 million for installation costs, indicating what services were provided in relation to the installation of the machines. [89919]
§ Mr. McCartneyBy 30 November 2002 the Department for Work and Pensions had installed 100,120 workstations (desktops and laptops) along with the associated software, smart card readers, printers, servers and switches.
The £156.7 million capital expenditure up to 30 November 2002 is broken down as follows.
652W
£ million Desktops 85.2 Laptops 7.5 Printers 11.1 Software 18.2 Servers 24.0 Network Switches 10.7 The cost of a desktop workstation (including base unit, monitor, and keyboard) has been negotiated down from £838 to £804 during the course of rollout. The specification has also improved with each bulk order.
The £58.5 million installation costs are covered by two contracts with suppliers. The detailed breakdown of costs is commercially sensitive information which could enable suppliers to gain an advantage in pricing negotiations. Such information is not disclosed under part 2, paragraph 13 of the Code of Practice an Access to Government Information. However, the services provided are delivery, on-site allocation and testing, disposal and warehousing, implementation management, ordering, work scheduling, planning, central support, migration of data, network connection, on-site management and problem resolution.