§ Mr. AllanTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what audit mechanisms are in place to determine whether information technology(a) hardware and (b) software products are being used properly in his Department. [150934]
§ Mr. Charles ClarkeAll members of the Department for Education and Skills have access to the internet. Filtering software is installed to block access to inappropriate sites and all accesses are monitored and recorded. Attempts to access inappropriate sites are referred for disciplinary action— staff have to accept the conditions for use of the equipment each time they log into the network.
Much of the software used by the Department are purchased on a corporate licence— where this is not the case records are maintained to ensure that only the number of licences purchased are used. All hardware is configured to prohibit the loading of unauthorised software.
The Department have started to use auditing software to reconcile the amount of software in use against the central records of software purchases. It is planning to conduct three monthly audits to achieve this.
Hardware is purchased centrally and details of all hardware items are held in an asset database. Hardware is subject to an annual audit where every item on the asset database is checked either physically or using auditing software to ensure it is still in being used correctly.
Appropriate action is taken in any cases where hardware cannot be found.
The Department's Internal Audit Division conduct regular audits to ensure that the conditions for use of hardware and software are both appropriate and are being enforced.