Scottish Government spend on IT equipment, maintenance costs, distribution of devices and refresh policy: FOI release

Information requested

Could you please provide the following details relating to Scottish Government Office Equipment Spend Government spend on desktop computers, apple mac, laptops and monitors including maintennace has increased from £15.8 million in 2019-2020 up to £58.3 million in 2023-2024?

1. What is the quantity of each of different categories and models of desktop, laptop or applemac device being issued to staff?

2. How many devices desktop, laptop or appplemac devices are managed in total for Scottish Government?

3. How many of the managed devices are provided for non-Scottish Government FTE and who are the users of these?

4. What is the standard issue device ?

5. What peripheral devices are included in a standard build?

6. Why has the average spend per FTE gone from £2313 to £6520 per annum as this is many times more than the purchase of a top of the range device?

7. How much of the cost relates to changes in how support is provided for home workers?

8. What is the refresh policy for government devices?

Response

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested itemised by each question. For several questions, a response is not possible due to the cost of data consolidation or the records not being held. Details on each exclusion are provided for each question below.

To note, the numbers cited in the opening text of the information request do not align with our records. A recent FOI provides details of 'office equipment' spend for each year from 2019 to 2024. The total spend for all office equipment across the entire time period was £58,595,329.52. Funds spent on computing devices account for only a portion of this total sum.

As standard business practice, Scottish Government employees are issued a device from a centrally managed pool. However, it is possible that a business area may procure a laptop or other device locally by other means. This would only occur in rare instances. Determining whether or not any areas procured a device outside of the usual model would require a trawl of all records across each individual business area for the time period in question. This would exceed the £600 cost limit and is not considered to be a proportionate and reasonable search given the low likelihood of finding any such cases. In the interest of sharing as much information as possible, we have provided responses based on the standard procedure for issuing IT equipment.

1. What is the quantity of each of different categories and models of desktop, laptop or applemac device being issued to staff?

The table below provides the number of each model of device in use:

HP G9 Desktop	7
HP X360	12
HP 820 G3	1
HP 830 G10	596
HP 830 G11	1938
HP 830 G5	58
HP 830 G6	670
HP 830 G7	3390
HP 830 G8	4077
HP X360 G8	4
HP Ws G5	61
HP Zbook Fury G10	5
HP Zbook Fury G11	5
HP ZBook Power	13
Microsoft Surface Pro 7	10
Microsoft Surface Pro 7+	8
Microsoft Surface Pro 9	2

How many devices desktop, laptop or appplemac devices are managed in total for Scottish Government?

The total number of devices is 10,857.

How many of the managed devices are provided for non-Scottish Government FTE and who are the users of these?

Available user data does not provide details on the employment status of each user. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the costs of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600. In order to provide the breakdown requested, we would need to request employment status details from each area of the Scottish Government for each user and map this data against IT user records. Under section 12 of FOISA public authorities are not required to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit, which is currently set at £600 by Regulations made under section 12.

What is the standard issue device?

The current standard issue device is an HP EliteBook 830 G11 laptop.

What peripheral devices are included in a standard build?

A keyboard, mouse, and laptop stand are the standard peripherals included in a standard build.

Why has the average spend per FTE gone from £2313 to £6520 per annum as this is many times more than the purchase of a top of the range device?

These figures do not align with current Scottish Government figures. Many of the questions in this request focus on the cost of laptops or desktops. The standard issue laptop costs £518.67 per unit. In 2023/2024 the average total IT spend per employee was £2,789.

How much of the cost relates to changes in how support is provided for home workers?

Given the difference in figures we have available versus the figures proposed, this question cannot be answered. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

What is the refresh policy for government devices?

There is currently a four year average refresh rate for government devices.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.