§ Mr. FlightTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how often since 1997(a)his Department and (b)its associated public sector organisations have undergone portable appliance testing of IT equipment; and what the cost of portable appliance testing was in each year since 1997. [176571]
§ Mr. RammellPortable Appliance Testing (PAT) for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in the UK is subcontracted to Mitie Maintenance Ltd. No separate record is kept of the testing of IT equipment.
Mitie have recorded that they last did a full PAT test on all equipment in the FCO Main Building (King Charles Street), and 1 Carlton Gardens in 2001; and in the Old Admiralty Building in 2002. Costs for this testing are not available.
A full PAT test on all equipment at the FCO site at Hanslope Park was conducted in 2003 and cost £38,000.
The British Council similarly does not keep a breakdown of PAT testing by particular types of equipment. However, testing has been undertaken on all equipment on an annual basis in British Council offices in London for the last three years. The costs for each full test were:
£ 2001–02 8,788 2002–03 9,053 2003–04 8,007 The last full portable appliance testing in British Council offices at Bridgewater House, Manchester was in 2002–03. The cost was £4,406.25.
The last full portable appliance testing in British Council offices in Edinburgh was in 2003–04. The cost was £709.99.
Details of portable appliance testing in other British Council offices in the UK are not collated centrally at present.
The BBC World Service test all IT equipment before use and replaces it on a three yearly cycle. The cost of testing per appliance is £7 per item, and the annual total cost of this testing is about £11.000.
Wilton Park tests all equipment annually. It does not record the cost of testing IT equipment separately. The cost in 2003–04 was £2,200.