ICT Spend for Government bodies: FOI release
Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.
FOI reference: FOI/18/00102
Date received: 12 January 2018
Date responded: 8 February 2018
Information requested
ICT Spend for each Governmental body: the sum total of money spent on IT hardware; communications and networking; software licensing; outsourced IT services; internet connectivity; ongoing support and maintenance; consultancy and salaries of staff in the IT department; Total spend for each body: Total spend being any and all costs associated with the running of that Government body;
Number of staff per Government body: The total number of full-time and part-time staff working for that Government body; and Amount spent on Data Centre services and Data Centre costs.
You requested that the data is split as follows:
Department: how much each individual department or governmental organisation spends on IT; Section of the Government: differentiate between Local Government, Central Government and the NHS, or any other distinctions you commonly use in the Scottish Government; and Region: If possible, please split these into regions? Perhaps North, South, East, West and Central?
You request that the most desirable format for this information would be in an Excel format.
I clarified in a telephone conversation with you on 17 January, that you wish to request data for the last three available financial years and that when you refer to, "Governmental" or "Government" body you refer to bodies in the wider Scottish public sector landscape i.e. central government bodies, local authorities, colleges and universities and NHS bodies.
Response
1. I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested.
a) ICT Spend for each Government body.
The Scottish Government does not have the information you have asked for in this part of your request. We are unable to provide the total spend figures you have requested as salary information of staff within IT departments is not centrally held for all Scottish public sector bodies. In addition, we do not hold information in relation to IT spend for all Scottish public sector bodies.
This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.
However, you may find it helpful to note that the attached spreadsheet contains the total sum of money spent with third-party suppliers on ICT goods and services for 101 Scottish public sector bodies, for financial years 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17. The data has been presented both as a whole and broken down by four sectors, which are central government, local government, colleges and universities and, NHS bodies. Caveats on the data are included in the spreadsheet and are repeated here. The information contained in this FOISA response has been extracted from the Scottish Procurement Information Hub which is a tool to assist public sector organisations to analyse their spend profile. All suppliers have been allocated to one spend category only, where in reality they may supply products or services that cover multiple categories. These limitations should be borne in mind when interpreting this response.
The data is based on core trade spend which is spend with suppliers with whom over £1000 has been spent in a 12 month period, that have also been classed as a trading organisation or as a non-trade social care provider.
The ICT category is based on vCode supplier taxonomy developed by the provider of the Scottish Procurement information Hub. Information is provided where vCode Vendor Category is known.
In addition, Core Scottish Government salary information for ICT staff for years 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17 is included in the attached spreadsheet.
b) Total spend for each body.
All of the information you have requested is available as follows:
Scottish Government consolidated accounts are available from the following link: /publications/scottish-government-consolidated-accounts-year-ended-31-march-2017/pages/2/
Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.
In terms of other public bodies, the Scottish Government does not hold total spend figures for each public sector body in Scotland as we have no business requirement to hold this information centrally. You may wish to note that the annual accounts for each public sector body in Scotland may be available publically or can be requested from each individual organisation. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.
c) Number of staff per Government body.
Details of Scottish Government staff numbers are contained in the consolidated accounts referred to above, in the Staff numbers and Related Costs section of the document.
Details of staffing numbers across the devolved public sector and each local authority are published in the quarterly Public Sector Employment statistics which are available from the following link:
http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Labour-Market/PublicSectorEmployment
In addition, the Directory of Public Bodies provides a snapshot summary of key information on Scotland's national devolved public bodies in a consistent format. More detailed information on each public body can be found on the website links for each. A link to the directory is provided here:
http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Government/public-bodies/about/Bodies
Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.
You may also find it helpful to note that workforce statistics for NHSScotland, broken down by board is available from the following link: http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/
d) Amount spent on Data Centre services and Data Centre costs
The information you have requested in relation to Scottish Central Government data centre costs is provided in the Annex to this letter.
The Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have asked for as information on Data Centre Services and Data Centre costs is not centrally held for all Scottish public sector bodies.
This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested.
About FOI
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Contact
Please quote the FOI reference
Central Enquiry Unit
Email: ceu@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000
The Scottish Government
St Andrew's House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG
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