Government: Office Equipment

House of Lords written question – answered at on 15 March 2010.

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Photo of Lord Bach Lord Bach Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Ministry of Justice, The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice

In the 2008-09 financial year, the Ministry of Justice had in operation numerous contracts for the supply of photocopier paper.

The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) had one main supplier for photocopier paper incurring £1,089,154. In addition, prison industries spent a further £595,532 on specialist paper used for their printing workshops.

For the rest of the department-comprising the Ministry of Justice headquarters, HM Courts Service, Tribunals Service and the Office of the Public Guardian-several different contracts had been used to supply photocopier paper. It is not possible to determine the total expenditure on photocopier paper in 2008-09 without incurring the disproportionate cost of examining individual transactions which took place under the multiple contracts. However, the expenditure under the main contract for photocopier paper was £1,417,907 for the year.

It is possible, though unlikely, that some further expenditure may have been incurred outside of those contracts using the government procurement card (GPC). To investigate whether any photocopier paper had been purchased with the GPC card would incur disproportionate cost.

Since May 2009, the Ministry of Justice has consolidated its office supply contracts into one main supplier in order to derive the best value for money option possible. Prison industries, however, still continue to order specialist paper from other suppliers for their print industry.

All figures stated exclude VAT.

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