Written question asked by Brian White (Labour) on Friday, 29 October 2004, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 16 November 2004. It was answered by Fiona Mactaggart (Labour) on Tuesday, 16 November 2004 on behalf of the Home Office.

Home Office

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what percentage of the Department's (a) implemented and (b) planned computer systems use open source software; and what plans are in place to raise this level.

Answer: Brian White: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what percentage of the Department's (a) implemented and (b) planned computer systems use open source software; and what plans are in place to raise this level. [195654] Fiona Mactaggart: The choice of software to meet the business needs of the Home Office largely rests with our contracted strategic ISIT suppliers who include the consideration of open source solutions on a level basis with proprietary software in accordance with the Governments open source software police, which would include a test to ensure value for money. The Governments policy on open source is available on www.govtalk.gov.uk. Current suppliers to the Home Office are not known to extensively use, or have plans for implementing, open source software. None of the major non-PFI delivered projects utilise open source software. However within parts of the Home Office, where they no longer operate under PFI arrangements for IT there is a greater degree of choice over the software used e.g. The Immigration and Nationality Directorate intend to trial Linux solutions in a research and development area, as well as such things as Open Office, Apache, Tomcat, Mozilla.

Secondary information