IT Hardware - Suppliers, Contractors and Consultants
We have a received a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 for a list of suppliers, contractors and consultants that have been used…
Details
We have a received a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 for a list of suppliers, contractors and consultants that have been used over the past year when procuring IT hardware and the total spend on IT hardware during the past year.
We released the following information on 3 November 2009.
The Home Office does not generally purchase IT hardware directly. This is because a range of IT services, including the provision of consultancy, desktop services, supporting infrastructure and IT hardware, are provided to the Home Office by either the SIRUIS Consortium (Fujitsu), ATOS Origin, or CAPITA. The SIRIUS Consortium provides IT services to the Home Office Headquarters, parts of the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and parts of the UK Border Agency (UKBA). ATOS provides services for part of the UKBA and used to provide some elements to the Identy and Passport Service (IPS) and Capita has provided services to part of the CRB. Similarly, Computercentre has been used for the provision of hardware to IPS.
The Home Office does not therefore, ordinarily purchase or own hardware and does not hold the information you have requested. This is because the majority of hardware used within the Home Office and its agencies is provided as part of the service contracts with SIRIUS, ATOS, and CAPITA. In 2008-09 the total cost for the provision of all services from SIRUS was £79.9m. The total cost for services from ATOS was £32m, and the total cost for services from Capita was £54.2m. While the total cost of IT Hardware provided within the period of 2008-09 from Computercentre was £2.075m
In addition to the above, the Home Office purchases a small amount of IT equipment outside the above service contracts. This type of purchase consists of small orders for items such as laptops, blackberries, USB sticks, and standalone PCs. It is not, however, possible to provide a complete breakdown of all the items purchased in this manner. This is because many such items are purchased directly by individual units within the Home Office and it does not hold a central breakdown of this expenditure. The Home Office does maintain a central record of expenditure on combined IT purchases - this indicates a total overall spend of £470,863. This figure does include other items such as IT software.
Most IT equipment used by the Home Office and its agencies is purchased and owned by SIRIUS, ATOS, or CAPITA.
The Home Office does not generally purchase IT hardware directly. IT purchasing is carried out by members of the Commercial Directorate. The Home Office Group Commercial Director has overall responsibility for IT procurement, including the negotiation of IT service contracts.