§ Mr. Edward DaveyTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what the average cost is of sending externally a 1Mb message from an NHS organisation; [124090]
(2) if his Department has estimated the cost of sending externally a 1Mb message from an NHS organisation using an alternate SMPT Internet Mail system. [124091]
§ Ms StuartFrom 1 April 1999 the full cost of messaging is now met directly by the National Health Service Information Authority and financed by money from health authority annual allocations. The current tariff and discount structure is negotiated centrally with the service providers and is based on overall volume of traffic, so that incremental costs per individual message are not calculated. The average cost per message at current use and discount rates is 1.2p.