To ask the Secretary of State for Health what were the (a) development and (b) running costs of the NHSnet in each of the last five years; what are the forecast costs for the next two years; and if he will make a statement. [81644]
NHSnet is provided to National Health Service organisations as a service by commercial contractors who funded its development and meet its running costs: those costs are, therefore, confidential to the contractors.Individual NHS organisations are charged by the contractors for NHSnet connections and for the messages they send over NHSnet.Until 31 March 1999, bills for these charges were met by individual NHS users. The estimated total charges for the last four years are as follows (NHSnet has been in use only since 1995–96):
| Estimated total charges (£ million) | ||
| Year | NHSnet connections | Messaging |
| 1995–96 | 0·275 | 0·013 |
| 1996–97 | 1·900 | 0·113 |
| 1997–98 | 3·000 | 0·661 |
| 1998–99 | 4·400 | 1·500 |
From 1 April 1999, the charges for NHSnet are being met centrally, as recommended in "Information for Health", the new NHS Information Strategy published in September 1998. The estimates for the next two years are:
| Estimated total charges (£ million) | ||
| Year | NHSnet connections | Messaging |
| 1999–2000 | 8·800 | 4·300 |
| 2000–01 | 15·800 | 5·500 |