§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will list, for 1997–98 and for each subsequent financial year, the amount spent(a) in the United Kingdom and (b) abroad by (i) her Department, (ii) its agencies and (iii) its non-departmental public bodies on (1) providing mobile telephone equipment, including handsets and other associated equipment, (2) telephone calls made using such equipment and (3) telephone calls made using privately owned mobile telephones but subsequently reclaimed by (x) Ministers and (y) staff. [34414]
§ Ms HewittThis information is not held centrally in the Department of Trade and Industry and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. Responsibility for the provision of mobile telephones for official purposes and for payment of the associated call charges was devolved to individual directorates, agencies and NDPBs at the end of March 1993. Since August 1997, the DTI has increasingly made use of the central Mobile Telecommunications contract managed by the Office for Government Commerce. Vodafone are the latest suppliers of this contract, which provides a call-off arrangement for DTI users at advantageous prices ensuring that the Department obtains good value for money.