§ Mr. FlightTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport how often since 1997(a) his Department and (b) its associated public sector organisations have undergone portable appliance testing of IT equipment; and what the cost was of portable appliance testing in each year since 1997. [176915]
§ Mr. McNultyThe Department for Transport was formed in May 2002 and as a result the information provided relates to the period from then.
In the Department's headquarters building Great Minster House in London portable appliance testing (PAT) is carried out annually and the latest available figures show expenditure of £19,016 and £15,005 excluding VAT for 2002 and 2003 respectively.
Elsewhere in the Department's Agencies PAT testing of portable equipment is normally carried out on annual basis for non-IT equipment. IT equipment is sometimes included in these tests but in other situations the checking is undertaken by IT engineers as part of servicing arrangements.
Comprehensive information on costs is not readily available because in some cases these are undifferentiated from other Mechanical and Electrical service contracts costs or are not accounted for separately in the individual finance systems. To separately identify such costs would involve disproportionate costs.