FOI release

Furniture costs at 2 Marsham Street

We have a received a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 for the following information:  What percentage of furniture (such…

From:
Home Office
Published
15 March 2010

Documents

http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/d/pfi_signed_projects_list.xls

MS Excel Spreadsheet, 517 KB

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Details

We have a received a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 for the following information: 

  1. What percentage of furniture (such as desks, chairs and pedestals) is owned by the Home Office versus that which is leased.
  2. How much has been spent in total on leasing office furniture (for the above years)
  3. How much it costs to furnish a single workstation (I would be grateful if you could itemise this)
  4. The number of workstations in the Home Office
  5. The number of workstations in use on a day-to-day basis
  6. The name of the company from whom this is leased

The information was requested for the financial year 2007/2008 and 2008/2009 for the Home Office building at 2 Marsham Street.

We released the following information on 15 March 2010.

  1. All office furniture within 2 Marsham Street is provided by the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) supplier that operates the building.
  2. The costs for the provision, maintenance and renewal/replacement of office furniture are contained within the monthly PFI combined accommodation charge. The percentage of this payment that relates to office furniture is not held. The PFI combined accommodation charge covers accommodation provision and support services, such as reception, security guarding, cleaning etc. Details on total costs are already published by HM Treasury - row 434 of this file refers: http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/d/pfi_signed_projects_list.xls
  3. Under the arrangements in place during the years in question, a standard workstation comprised the following: desk unit, return, electrical power strip, pedestal, chair and, where applicable, privacy screen(s).  Costs to the PFI supplier for purchasing these items varies according to the size of the order.  As a guide for small orders:
    desk unit, return and power strip:  £1,000
    chair:            £340
    pedestal:       £115
  4. During each of the years covered by the request, the department had 3,781 workstations in 2 Marsham Street.
  5. A survey during 2008-09 indicated that generally approximately sixty percent of workstations were in use at any one time.  At the time staff were allocated their own workstation.  In 2009/10 flexible working was introduced which provides, in general, for 8 workstations per 10 staff.  This change will be completed for all HO and UKBA staff in 2 Marsham Street later this calendar year and will increase usage of workstations proportionately.
  6. Furniture in 2 Marsham Street is not separately leased. As previously stated in our answer to question one, all office furniture in 2 Marsham Street is provided by the PFI supplier that operates the building.  The service provider for the PFI accommodation contract is Annes Gate Property plc.

Date: Wed Sep 22 15:10:49 BST 2010

Published 15 March 2010