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Departmental Internet

Volume 501: debated on Wednesday 2 December 2009

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the cost was of maintaining his Department's website in the 2008-09 financial year; and what the forecast cost is of maintaining websites within his responsibility in the 2009-10 financial year. (302414)

The Ministry of Defence and armed forces collectively maintain four corporate websites. Identified direct expenditure on running these in the financial year 2008-09 was as detailed in the following table. This analysis complies with the guidance issued by COI on the methodology for identifying website costs in response to a Public Accounts Committee recommendation1.

1 Public Account Committee Sixteenth Report;

http://www.publications.parliament.Uk/pa/cm200708/cmselect/cmpubacc/143/l4302.htm

Website

URL

FY 2008-09 (£)

FY 2009-101 (£)

MOD Corporate Website

www.mod.uk

464,853

485,3052

Royal Navy

www.royalnavy.mod.uk

283,000

283,000

British Army

www.army.mod.uk

501,814

n/a3

Royal Air Force

www.raf.mod.uk

425,241

423,663

1 Forecast costs for 2009-10 are based on the best available information.

2 Excludes some external support costs which cannot be separated out from costs incurred in support of the internal Defence Intranet.

3 Projected costs for FY 2009-10 are not available as the rationalisation of Army websites is in the scoping phase and costs are being defined. It is likely to be in the region of £1.35 million.

A number of other websites are run by different parts of the Ministry of Defence, but these are not managed centrally. This information could only be provided at disproportionate cost.