§ Mr. HoyleTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science, pursuant to his reply of 14 December 1987,Official Report, column 341, on what occasions in the last two years his Department has allowed a single tender to be submitted for the supply of computers or communications equipment to a British university; what were the names of tenderers involved; and which of them was foreign owned.
Mr. JacksonIn the last two years single tender action has been agreed for the following university computer procurements involving capital grants of £100,000 or more:
Birmingham University DEC VAX 8700 Edinburgh University Meiko Glasgow University ICL 3980 Kent University Meiko Nottingham University ICL 3980 Open University SUN workstations Queen Mary College, London AMT DAP South West Universities Regional Centre ICL 3980 Strathclyde University DEC VAX 8600 University College Cardiff DEC VAX 8530 Two single tender orders costing £100,000 or more have been agreed in the last two years for communications equipment. One was placed with GEC Computers Ltd for enhancement of packet-switching exchanges and the other was placed with CAMTEC Electronics Ltd for upgrading packet assemblers/disassemblers and gateways for the joint academic network (JANET).
706WIn addition, IBM donated computer systems to the University of Glasgow and the Manchester business school. No DES capital grants were involved in these procurements.
Of the suppliers of equipment listed below, the parent companies of Digital Equipment Company Ltd (DEC), SUN Microsystems (UK) Ltd, and IBM United Kingdom Ltd (IBM) are based in the United States; in the case of Active Memory Technology (AMT), International Computers Ltd (ICL), Meiko Ltd, GEC Computers Ltd and CAMTEC Electronics Ltd, central control and management are exercised in the United Kingdom.