§ Mr. RosindellTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how much was spent on mobile telephone calls by her Department in the last financial year. [135506]
§ Ms HewittResponsibility 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. This contract provides a call-off arrangement for DTI users at advantageous prices ensuring that the Department obtains good value for money. Due to the devolved responsibility for mobile telephone management the only information that can be provided at non-disproportionate cost is the total expenditure with DTI's main suppliers of mobile telephony. From the information currently available, expenditure last year was £342,964 which included both equipment and call charges.