§ Mr. Coombsasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if he will list those companies to which his Department has awarded contracts for the supply of word processing hardware and software in each year since 1984; and what was the value of each contract;
(2) how much his Department has spent on (a) word processing hardware and (b) word processing software in each year since 1984; and what is the projected expenditure for the financial years 1987–88 and 1988–89;
(3) if he will list those companies to which his Department has awarded contracts for the supply of desktop publishing hardware and software in each year since 1984; and what was the value of each contract;
(4) how much his Department has spent on (a) desktop publishing hardware and (b) desktop publishing software in each year since 1984; and what is the projected expenditure for the financial years 1987–88 and 1988–89.
§ Mr. HurdSince 1984 the Home Office has awarded contracts for the supply of computer hardware and software intended wholly or mainly for word processing or for desktop publishing to the following companies:
- AES
- British Olivetti
- British Telecom
- Digital
- Ferranti
- IBM
- ICL
- NCR
- Sentinel Software (software only)
- UNISYS
- Wang
For reasons of commercial confidentiality it would not be right to provide details of the value of individual contracts. However, total expenditure since 1984 by financial years is as follows:
1985–86 (out-turn) 1986–87 (estimated outturn) £ £ Hardware 177,657 659,953 Software 26,754 18,207 Planned expenditure for word processing hardware and software in 1987–88 is £703,000 and for 1988–89 is 1,243,000.