The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK's data protection watchdog, has signed a five-year outsourcing and IT provision deal with Alfred McAlpine IT Services.

The contract will see Alfred McAlpine provide services to all users across the ICO’s six office locations in the UK from today.

'Alfred McAlpine is a very good fit for us in terms of size, culture and experience to support and develop our organisation’s secure IT requirements into the future. It complements our drive to be more efficient and to provide a first class service to those who come into contact with us,' said Simon Entwisle, chief operating officer at ICO.

The service will include network, server, desktop and application management, as well as hosting, disaster recovery and IT security.

ICO hopes the system will ensure continuous availability of systems and minimise downtime.