Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what data their Department holds on the (a) number and (b) total cost of replacing (i) laptops, (ii) mobile phones, (iii) memory sticks and (iv) external hard drives that have been (A) lost and (B) stolen in the last year.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
The following table includes the number of lost or stolen devices in the Northern Ireland Office in the last year.
| Lost | Stolen | Cost of Replacing |
Laptops | 0 | 2 | £2,750 |
Mobile Phones | 3 | 1 | £2,496 |
Memory Sticks | 0 | 0 | n/a |
External Hard Drives | 0 | 0 | n/a |
All departmental IT is fully security encrypted. The departmental security unit records and investigates each reported loss from the Department. If appropriate, the police are invited to undertake further inquiries. Any mobile device reported as lost is immediately and remotely deactivated and the contents deleted. The user account on any laptop reported as lost is immediately and remotely locked.
There has been no data loss or compromises as a result of these losses.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how much his Department has spent on consultancy fees in each of the last five years.
Answered by Conor Burns
I refer the hon Member to the answer I gave on 27 June 2022 (UIN 23420) to the hon Member for North East Fife.
Since this answer was provided, we have published our 2021-22 Annual Report and Accounts. The amount spent on consultancy for 2021-22 was £304,400.