§ Mr. Coombsasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) if he will list those companies that 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;
229W(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 that his Department has awarded contracts for the supply of desk top 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) desk top publishing hardware and (b) desk top publishing software in each year since 1984; and what is projected expenditure for the financial years 1987–88 and 1988–89.
§ Mr. LyellThe companies awarded contracts for the supply of systems procured principally or exclusively for word processing for each year since 1984 are:
1984–85
- OEM
- Wordplex
- Data Recall
- Xerox
- British Olivetti
- CPT ITL
- Philips
- ICL
1985–86
- Wang
- OEM
- Wordplex
- Canon
- Keyword System
- British Olivetti
- Kalle Infotec
- Thorn-EMI
- Microvitec
1986–87
- IBM
- Sumlock
- Wang
- Diamond
- Thorn-EMI
- Ferranti Olivetti
- Wordplex
- Canon
- ITL
- GEC Reliance
1987–88
- Adler
- GEC Reliance
- ICL
- Wang
- IBM
- Olivetti
- Thorn-EMI
The value of each contract is not disclosed. It would be improper for reasons of commercial confidentiality to do so. The overall expenditure with all companies for each year is:
£ 1984–85 273,910 1985–86 676,458 1986–87 669,641 11987–88 232,549 1Thus far. Separate figures for hardware and software cannot be given as contracts were generally placed for integrated packages.
The projected expenditure on word processing is:
230W
£ Remainder of 1987–88 959,000 1988–89 1,009,000 No contracts have been awarded in the period since 1984 for desk top publishing hardware and software, though we have allocated approximately £22,000 for hardware and £1,000 for software purchasing during the remainder of this financial year. No further estimates of projected expenditure for 1988–89 have been made.