Costs incurred by local authorities to store hard copies of documents is potentially costing the taxpayer millions of pounds each year, freedom of information requests reveal.
In total, councils and the Government are spending upwards of £1.25m annually to store hard copies of data, the digital transformation company Dajon found.
Eight councils in England alone are spending approximately £400,000 to store paper files per year.
Dajon Managing Director, Damien Andrews, commented: ‘In the digital age we would question why public bodies continue to store hard copies of data when easy to access, digital storage would be more cost-effective and efficient.
‘We are calling on the new government to act and address this issue as a priority. Instead of allowing the age-old rinse and repeat method of document storage to continue, for the sake of the public purse we are appealing for government departments to make a step change and embrace digital transformation in this digital age.’
