Annual costs (including VAT) are shown in the following table. The figures include the costs for all Cabinet Office departments, including Executive agencies.
Financial year Cabinet Officecost (£) Directgov cost(£ million) 2006-07 (estimate) 690,000 5.3 2005-06 975,000 5.4 2004-05 670,000 5.4
Cabinet Office website costs are not available before 2004-05 as budgets for communication activity (including website development and maintenance) were devolved to Cabinet Office business units.
Directgov website costs (which cover services across government) are not available before 2004-05 as it was previously funded from within the UKOnline budget which was the responsibility of the Office of the e-Envoy (now eGU), and it has not been possible to obtain this financial information.
The Cabinet Office costs shown include the following elements:
web hosting and infrastructure leasing,
security auditing and software,
domain name registration and renewal,
application development and maintenance,
software licences and renewals, and
telecommunications rental and usage.
As the primary electronic channel to citizens for government, Directgov aims to be the one-place citizens turn to for the latest and widest range of public services. Directgov supports services on the web via www.direct.gov.uk, digital television (DTV) via Sky, ntl: and Telewest, and is available via mobile phones. Independent research has shown high levels of customer satisfaction, far exceeding the average rating for a government on-line service and on a par with the commercial sector.