£1bn wasted on printing every year

More than £1bn is wasted on office printing by UK businesses and government bodies every year.

Education and public administration are the biggest culprits, wasting around £225m - nearly a quarter of the total - on costly outsourced printing and poor internal print management.

This inefficiency is hampering business growth and productivity, according to the Centre for Economic Business Research (CEBR), which carried out the research.

Savings are possible by bringing more printing in-house and improving internal printing practices.

The report suggested the education sector could save around £115m per year.

These savings could release enough funds to fill existing teaching vacancies for two years, or fund 2.2 million primary school dinners, according to CEBR.

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Douglas McWilliams, CEBR chief executive, said in a statement: "It reveals that simply improving the organisation of printing - currently regarded as a relatively small area of business management - could yield productivity benefits of as much as £1bn a year."

The findings come from the Outsourced Printing - A Waste of Paper report, commissioned by OKI Printing Solutions.