§ Mr. JenkinTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the corporate headquarters office technology system; and what his assessment is of its level of usage by MoD staff. [80972]
§ Dr. MoonieThe Corporate Headquarters Office Technology System (CHOTS), first introduced in the Ministry of Defence in the early 1990s and rolled out progressively since, is MOD's workhorse computing platform for office automation within the Head Office of the Department, and is installed in or linked to major Commands and HQ locations, at 23 main sites and 128 minor sites both in the United Kingdom and overseas. It comprises some 13,000 workstations and supports over 25,000 user accounts, and is used predominantly for the preparation of documents, spreadsheets and presentation material, for e-mail preparation, transmission and reception, and for internal web site hosting and browsing. The system enjoys a high level of usage by MOD staff, running at typically 80per cent. of capacity. Typical average e-mail traffic within the system is presently in the region of 2.25 million per month.