Departmental Information and Communications Technology

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what estimate he has made of the (a) energy consumed by, (b) energy cost of and (c) carbon dioxide emissions from each category of IT device in each division of his Department in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. (269546)

This information can be provided only at disproportionate cost.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what steps his Department has taken to address the effect on levels of carbon dioxide emissions from his Department of its ICT purchases since the publication of the Greening Government ICT Strategy; and if he will make a statement. (269569)

The Department for Transport and its Agencies are committed to reducing the levels of carbon dioxide emissions from ICT purchases. On purchasing the following steps are now taken:

Routinely buying servers and PCs which incorporate power saving features,

Reducing the number of servers by using virtualisation technologies,

Reducing the number of printers by needs testing and using multi-functional devices as a preference,

Reducing the number of PCs and starting the deployment of low-power, thin client devices.

Including sustainability requirements in all future ICT specifications and contracts so that items with better Energy Star (or similar) ratings can be preferred.

After purchase of the ICT equipment power saving measures include:-

Shutting down PCs at weekends, with a view to extending this to every evening

Using power saving modes and duplexing on printers.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what the average server capacity utilisation by each division of his Department was in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. (269594)

The average server storage utilisation figures for the Department for Transport (Central) were as follows:-

April	Percentage
2005	51.0
2006	40.0
2007	47.7
2008	47.5
2009	53.75

Figures for the Agencies are either unavailable or can be provided only at disproportionate cost.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many (a) printers and (b) multi-function devices with printing functions were in use in each division of his Department in each of the last five years; how many such devices had a function enabling two-sided printing; and if he will make a statement. (269615)

The following table gives the figures for the Department for Transport and its agencies.

*2005200620072008*
	Printers	MFDs	Printers	MFDs	Printers	MFDs	Printers	MFDs	Comments
DFT (c)	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	609	48	539	47	All have duplex function. Figures for first two years not available.
DVLA	1,100	—	1,100	—	1,100	—	1,100	—	1,100 is average figure in use at any time. Further figures not available but estimate approx 90 per cent. have duplex function.
HA	n/a	39	n/a	77	n/a	103	307	172	Printer numbers not available before 2008. All have duplex function.
DSA	570	570	570	570	570	570	570	570	Cannot split between printers and MFDs. 570 is average figure in use at any time. Currently hoping to reduce printers by about 125. All new devices have duplex function.
MCA	n/a	0	n/a	0	412	874	472	764	Printer figures not available for first two years. Duplex figures were 210 and 275 respectively for printers and 698 and 758 for MFDs.
VOSA	1,299	—	1,452	—	1,899	—	1,570	—	Records do not extend beyond these figures, although most printers have duplex function.
VCA	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	27	0	Eight have two-sided function. Figures not available for earlier years.
GCDA	44	2	46	2	49	3	49	3	Currently two printers and two MFDs have duplex function.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many and what proportion of IT products in each category procured for each division of his Department were compliant with the Government’s Buy Sustainable-Quick Win standard in the latest year for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement. (269639)

This information is not currently held and could be ascertained only at disproportionate cost.

Volume 491: debated on Thursday 23 April 2009