Departments: Energy

Mr. Spellar
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what (a) instructions are issued to staff in her Department and (b) technical procedures are in place to shut down computers at night.

Angela E. Smith
Communities and Local Government and its agencies issue instructions to their staff to shut down computers and other office equipment at night. Staff in HQ buildings are also encouraged to switch off their monitors during the day when they are away from their desks for more than five minutes. These messages are consolidated by posters in working areas and in photocopier rooms. Surveys are regularly conducted to monitor if these instructions are followed.

Depending on their configuration PCs used by the Department are set up so that the monitor and/or hard disk go into standby, or power down, after a predetermined period of inactivity.

Some networking equipment needs to run continuously and is shut down only for maintenance.