§ Mr. MillerTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security 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. [19453]
§ Mr. BurtThere are no such cases.
From March 1994 the Department had a contingency arrangement with the private sector to protect some of its mainframe computers. The contract was never enacted. From June 1995, after outsourcing of the Department's data centre services, EDS became responsible for the mainframe computers. The Department requires EDS to guarantee a specific level of service but the specifics of contingency arrangements are a matter for EDS.