§ Mr. AllanTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister what audit mechanisms are in place to determine whether information technology(a) hardware and (b)software products are being used properly in his Department. [150928]
§ Yvette CooperCorporate ICT services for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister HQ are provided by the Department for Transport under a Service Level Agreement which includes provision of licences, software and hardware as part of a managed service. I therefore refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my hon. Friend the Member for Harrow, East (Mr. McNulty) on 28 January 2004,Official Report, column 359W.
Government Offices and the Regional Co-ordination Unit are responsible for their own IT systems. Procurement of core systems hardware and software is undertaken by the Regional Co-ordination Unit who purchase either directly from providers or via one of their outsource partners.
Licensing of corporate-wide software is managed by the outsource providers. Such software is subject to corporate licensing agreements and is subject to similar auditing controls by the providers as mentioned in the answer referred to above.
Individual Government Offices may also purchase non-corporate hardware and software locally. All purchases of software require prior approval from the RCU. Asset tracking software is utilised to monitor hardware and software utilisation.