You asked
What happened to the A3 Scanners used in the 2011 Census
Where are they now?
Were these purchased by the ONS or funded through the contracts. How much did they cost?
Did they remain the property of the State after the census?
Did they remain with the processing company in Manchester. (This company went into liquidation in August 2014) - if the scanners were still the property of ONS were they retrieved
If the scanners are still with ONS - can they be used by another Public organisation?
We said
In August 2008, following a competitive procurement under EU regulations, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) entered into a fixed price service contract with Lockheed Martin UK (LMUK) for a range of census services. Scanning of the census forms was one of the activities carried out under that contract.
LMUK set up the scanning and capture capability in a processing site in Manchester and sub-contracted UK Data Capture (UKDC) to operate the service.
LMUK acquired refurbished scanners which had previously been used for the US Census to save cost. The exact cost details are unavailable due to the nature of the contract. LMUK were the owners of the scanners; they were not owned by ONS.
When the scanning finished, LMUK decommissioned the scanners and removed them prior to UKDC closing down. They then sold all but three scanners back to the original manufacturer, IBML. The remaining three scanners were sold later to XS International.