Public sector wastes millions on IT disposal

Public sector bodies are wasting around £70m each year by failing to regularly replace their IT equipment, according to a National Audit Office (NAO) report.

The average public sector body replaces its hardware every five years but by cutting this refresh time down to three years - in line with current best commercial practice - there may be "significant countervailing savings" from, for example, reduced maintenance costs and improved resale values, according to the recent report.

Head of the NAO, John Bourn, said the government needs to better understand the trade-offs between securing better immediate financial value and the wider environmental costs and benefits associated with the disposal of IT equipment.

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In the 2005/06 financial year, public bodies bought 1.7 million units of IT equipment at a cost of £2.7bn, with the majority (85 per cent) of equipment procured being computer units and monitors, according to the report.

Based on these figures, moving from a five to three year hardware turnover would increase public sector procurement costs by an estimated £1.8bn, according to the NAO Improving the disposal of public sector ICT Equipment report.

But the report also estimates the public sector could have saved up to £1.4bn by carrying out faster equipment refresh processes over this period.

More than one in 10 central government organisations said they did not know whether data wiping took place on obsolete IT equipment before it was recycled or resold, the report reveals.

The report also found around 70 per cent of central government organisations are not obtaining any evidence that data wiping has been carried out on IT equipment before it was recycled or resold.

The procurement of public sector IT equipment is forecast to increase to £4.1bn by 2010/11 with an estimated 2.6 million units of equipment being bought, according to the report.