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Departmental ICT

Volume 475: debated on Tuesday 13 May 2008

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps he has taken to ensure that counterfeit routers and counterfeit other hardware are not utilised in his Department’s computer networks. (203245)

The Department for Work and Pensions has its IT services delivered via an infrastructure that is managed by leading IT suppliers. The Department has rigorous procurement policies and processes, to source IT equipment from recognised and trusted suppliers that meet defined supply and security criteria. All components are supplied direct to either BT or EDS from their original manufacturers or their nominated and approved resellers and are individually certified as authentic.

The Department and its suppliers also use rigorous change control procedures which are compliant with recognised industry standards to control installation and change to the IT infrastructure.