Telephony and VoIP systems in use at the Scottish Government: FOI release

Information requested

The following details regarding the telephony and VoIP systems in use at the Scottish Government:

1. Does the Scottish Government currently use BT’s Cloud Voice, Cloud Voice Express, or any other BT-provided telephony/VoIP services for staff or official communications?

2. If so, are any Yealink devices (such as desk phones, conference phones, or DECT cordless handsets) used as part of this system?
1. If yes, please specify which Yealink models are in use and provide approximate quantities if available.

3. Are any other Yealink devices used by the Scottish Government (outside of the BT-provided service)?

4. For what purposes are any Yealink devices used (e.g., departmental communications, ministerial offices, conference rooms)?

5. If present, please provide the contract start and end dates for your current telephony agreement with BT.

Response

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested.

1. Does the Scottish Government currently use BT’s Cloud Voice, Cloud Voice Express, or any other BT-provided telephony/VoIP services for staff or official communications?

The Scottish Government doesn’t have or use BT’s Cloud Voice, Cloud Voice Express, or any other BT-provided telephony/VoIP services for staff or official communications.

2. If so, are any Yealink devices (such as desk phones, conference phones, or DECT cordless handsets) used as part of this system?
If yes, please specify which Yealink models are in use and provide approximate quantities if available

3. Are any other Yealink devices used by the Scottish Government (outside of the BT-provided service)?

4. For what purposes are any Yealink devices used (e.g., departmental communications, ministerial offices, conference rooms)?

For Questions 2-4 above, the Scottish Government IT division 'ITECS' has not purchased or distributed any Yealink devices. However, it is possible that a business area may have purchased a headset, accessory etc to meet a local business or user need. Determining whether or not any business areas procured a Yealink device would require a trawl of all records across each individual business areas and no time period is provided to conduct this search. 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.

It may help to narrow the search to a specific business area and the timeframe you are interested in, that business area may then be able to provide details of any Yealink devices they have purchased, if they have done so.

5. If present, please provide the contract start and end dates for your current telephony agreement with BT.

The Scottish Government does not have a telephony agreement with BT as we don't use their services for staff or official communications.

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.