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, 9 November 2004. It was answered by Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour) on Tuesday, 9 November 2004 on behalf of the Northern Ireland Office.

Northern Ireland Office

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, 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 Northern Ireland 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. [195652] Mr. Paul Murphy: There is minimal use of Open Source Software (OSS) among the Northern Ireland Departments. To date, only the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) and the Department of Finance and Personnel Business Development Service operate a very limited open source system which comprises products such as Linux, Apache and MYSQL. There are no immediate plans to increase usage of OSS throughout the Northern Ireland Departments at present. However, the possible future use of Open Source will be considered as part of the forthcoming ICT Strategy for the Northern Ireland Civil Service which is to be commissioned early in 2005.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 195652; 426 c666W
Session: 2003-04
Subjects: Software ICT Government departments Procurement Northern Ireland Office
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk