Disposal of old computer equipment

Every job that you will ever be in will use a computer for something.  To give you some idea of what we are talking about, most cars now have a very good computer in them (MOT’s are usually done now with the use of a laptop rather than a spanner…). So why bring this up here?  All governments will use a computer for something - even if it is for writing documents - and eventually will have to replace them.  So what does the government do when they need to replace a computer?  Do they simply walk down to PC world and buy another one?  Only one way to find out!

So I asked ALL central government bodies the same questions which were:

1) How long do you keep laptops or computers for in your department

2) How much was spent in 2015 in replacing computer equipment

3) What is your department's policy on the disposal of computer

equipment? Do you use an approved disposal service or does it go

for a general sale \ auction?

Why did I asked about disposal options?  I love a programme called BONIC.  It allows you to donate computer time to different types of projects which look into everything from Malaria cures to decryption.  I was wondering if they sold them off cheap to be able to buy some too…  I have no dignity…

So what were the results:

Name of Department	Amount Spent	Length of equipment
Her Majesty’s Treasury	£16,123	When Needed
Foreign and Commonwealth Office	Unable to	No Time Period
Government Equalities Office	Not in contact yet
Export Credits Guarantee Department	£31,000	No Policy
Department of Health	£314,770	5 Years
Department of Energy and Climate Change	None	No Policy
Department for Work and Pensions	Contract	Laptops - 3 Years Computer - 5\7 years
Department for Transport	Unable	Laptops - 5 Years Computer - 5\7 years
Department for International Development	No answer at time of writing
Department for Education	£1.832 million	5 Years
Department for Culture, Media and Sport	Contract with the cabinet office
Department for Communities and Local Government	Nothing	60 months for Desktop computers and 36 months for Laptops.
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills	No Information	No Policy
Cabinet Office	https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cabinet-office-spend-data	laptops for 3 to 5yrs

Before I go any further, I did actually asked the Department for Communities and Local Government the same FoI request twice (By accident)...  A stern reply came from them..

The thing that is most striking from this is how little these departments have spent on replacing computers.  I was expecting millions to have been spent on this.  I mean the highest was the department of education.  Mostly they are in the hundreds of thousands; were you expecting higher?  

So why did so many not get back in touch .  I think it was because I asked how much it cost to replace computers not just get new ones.  Never minds,  that a whole other FoI request!  Anyway, the thing that I did not answer here was what they did with the old