To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much the (a) design and (b) maintenance of the Race Against Global Poverty section of his Department’s website (i) has cost and (ii) is projected to cost. (226114)

[holding answer 13 October 2008]: The total cost of designing the ‘Race Against Global Poverty’ section of DFID’s website was £83,221.17. Maintenance costs are £10,109.70 per annum for database hosting, usage statistics and bandwidth.

This section of the DFID website is designed to assist pupils in the subjects of ICT, geography and citizenship, as part of the secondary school teaching curriculum. Since it was launched on 30 June 2008 there have been 54,962 user sessions on this section of the website.