(2) how much has been spent on (a) the purchase of and (b) bills for (i) BlackBerrys and (ii) other mobile telephones for (A) Ministers, (B) special advisers and (C) civil servants in his Department in each year since 2005;
(3) how many laptop computers have been provided to (a) Ministers, (b) special advisers and (c) civil servants in his Department in each year since 2005; and at what cost.
The Department does not purchase BlackBerrys, mobile telephones or laptops. They are provided under contractual arrangements with one of the Department’s IT suppliers. The average number in use and cost of providing the service since 2007-08 is as follows:
2007-08 2008-09 Number of BlackBerrys 537 1,040 Cost of providing BlackBerrys (£) 647,082 1,005,575 Number of mobile phones 19,487 17,353 Cost of providing mobile phones (£) 1,455,348 1,443,752 Number of laptops 7,642 7,296 Cost of providing laptops (£) 5,315,048 5,142,381
There are currently four BlackBerrys allocated to Ministers and four allocated to special advisers. There is one mobile telephone allocated to a Minister and one allocated to a special adviser. There are five laptops allocated to Ministers and four allocated to special advisers. When Ministers or special advisers leave the Department all IT and telephony is returned and then reallocated to other users in the Department. Records are therefore only available for current users.
Numbers prior to 2007-08 for the Department as a whole are not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.