Directgov: Finance

Jo Swinson
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the cost of running the Directgov website was in each of the last five years.

Jonathan Shaw
Expenditure on the Directgov website since its launch in 2004 has been as follows:

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|Financial year|£ million|
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|2004-05       |4.6      |
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|2005-06       |9.7      |
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|2006-07       |11.9     |
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|2007-08       |13.1     |
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In addition, the following expenditure was incurred on non-web channels (i.e. kiosk, DTV and mobile):

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|Financial year|£ million|
--------------------------
|2004-05       |0.4      |
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|2005-06       |0.8      |
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|2006-07       |0.8      |
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|2007-08       |0.8      |
--------------------------


Expenditure for the current year (2008-09) is not yet available.