§ Mr. KaufmanTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how much her Department spent on IT, itemising(a) personal computers, (b) main-frame, (c) mini-computers and (d) file servers in the last year for which figures are available. [52888]
§ Mr. DenhamThe bulk of the Department's expenditure on IT is accounted for by the Information Technology Services Agency (ITSA) which exists to provide IT services both to DSS and to certain Other Government Departments. ITSA' s expenditure on the provision of such services for the 1997/98 financial year was as follows:
- Current Expenditure: £337.702m
- Capital Expenditure: £17.454m.
Of this expenditure the Department recovered £29.712m mainly in respect of services provided to other Government Departments.
191WAdditional Departmental IT expenditure for the 1997–98 financial year (not accounted for by ITSA) is as follows:
- Current Expenditure: £7.363m
- Capital Expenditure: £15.640m.
It is not possible to separately identify money spent on personal computers, main-frame, mini-computers and file servers as expenditure. It is not recorded in this way.
In October 1995 the provision of main-frame services was outsourced to EDS. Since that date, EDS have been responsible for the purchase of main-frame hardware which may be needed to provide a new service, or a change to an existing one.