§ Mr. Chris SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will list(a) the number and (b) the value of items of equipment and furniture that have been (i) stolen and (ii) are otherwise unaccounted for from (1) DSS offices and (2) executive agency offices in each region, for each of the last five years; and if he will list by name those items valued at £5,000 or more. [13088]
431W
§ Mr. Burt[pursuant to his reply, 12 February 1996, c. 467]: Further information is as follows.
The information is not available in the format requested. The Department of Social Security does not separately maintain centralised records of individual items stolen. Losses due to theft, fraud, arson, sabotage or other causes are recorded in a single category. The number of individual losses recorded within this category, and the total value for each of the last five years is in the table:
Financial year Number of individual cases Total value £ 1990–91 364 89,799 1991–92 411 72,315 1992–93 94 84,500 1993–94 192 222,382 1994–95 192 192,020 Since 1992–93 the Information Technology Services Agency has conducted annual certification exercises to confirm the value of its fixed asset register. Following the 1992–93 exercise, a total of £5,845,000 was noted on the Department's appropriation account for 1992–93 as being
loss arising from discrepancies between the ITSA Asset Register and actual equipment identified".Following the 1994–95 exercise, a total of £695,000 was so identified. The fact that the certification exercises in 1993–94 and 1994–95 revealed surplus equipment of over £6 million valued on a comparable basis suggests that these "losses" are not permanent. However, in Government accounting terms the discrepancies identified are categorised as losses.
The estimated gross value of the Department's tangible fixed assets, excluding land and buildings, is approximately £780 million for 1994–95.