To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether each data set for which his Department is responsible is held on (a) live system environments, (b) backup tapes and (c) manual records; at what other locations data are stored; and if he will make a statement. (241303)

The data sets required to support the services we deliver to customers are stored within the database management systems that support the different applications that deliver the Department's business. The majority of these systems are hosted across two physical data centres and there are extensive backup and recovery regimes and subsystems in place to meet business continuity needs. These backup subsystems use both tape and disc storage.

This comprehensive approach to backup does not require manual records to be maintained within the data centres.