§ Mr. MillerTo ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will list all cases since 1987 in which his Department has bought computer capacity from(a) other Departments and (b) the private sector, giving the value of each contract and the name of the private sector contractors. [19467]
Mr. John M. TaylorMy Department does not purchase raw computer capacity as such. Instead, a range of computer-related services is procured from a variety of sources. Following decentralisation of related budget responsibilities to individual management units, central records do not cover all uses of such services. In addition, the costs of those services reflect not only the computer capacity required but the specialist manpower and communication facilities needed to deliver them.
The majority of these services are currently delivered to my Department by Hoskyns plc following its success in a market test in 1994. The total value of services delivered during the first year of the contract was £6.7 million. Prior to the market test these services were delivered from in-house capacity. In addition, my Department has used the Treasury's Chessington Computer Centre for staff pay and pensions since 1980 at a current annual cost of £354,000.