U.K. to Upgrade All 650 MPs to a New iPad Air 2 and Laptop

The U.K. House of Commons Commission has announced that it is upgrading all 650 MPs to a new iPad Air 2 and laptop. The hardware refresh will cost about £200,000 for each year of the Parliament's tenure.

The total cost is around £1 million; however, the plan is to save £3 million a year by getting MPs and staff to read and annotate papers on devices rather than printing hard copies, notes Computer World.

Shadow Cabinet Office minister Chi Onwurah was critical of the decision to lock MPs into using iOS over a 'device independent digital platform'. "As we saw with Nigel Mills and Candy Crush, MPs will be using the games, and the iTunes and other features on the iPad. Locking some of the most powerful people in the country into a platform that most of my constituents can't afford seems like a mistake. And that's without mentioning the tax avoidance issue. I'm pushing for a device independent digital platform for Parliament."


However, Commission Chairman John Thurso noted that iPads have been used across Parliament since 2012 and they are "integrated with current business processes and infrastructure".

"A move away from the Apple operating system at this time would incur costs to change these processes," he said. “Our requirements are for a secure, SIM-enabled tablet with a good life expectancy and capable of supporting future upgrades. The Apple iPad Air 2 meets these requirements and is competitively priced when compared with similar models.”

The MPs will get a 16GB WiFi + Cellular iPad Air 2 which is priced at £499 in the U.K.

[Telegraph] [ComputerWorld]