HC Deb 29 March 2004 vol 419 cc1253-4W
Matthew Taylor

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the cost in(a) financial and (b) other terms was in (i) each financial year since 1997 and (ii) 2003–04 until the latest date for which figures are available of (A) developing and (B) maintaining (1) his Department's website and (2) each website for which his Department is responsible; and how many (C) unique hosts and (D) hits there were in each month for each website in (iii) each financial year since 1997 and (iv) 2003–04 until the latest date for which numbers are available. [155851]

Maria Eagle

Development for the DWP website, agency and other campaign websites is carried out by the Department's own in-house web team who are responsible for production, management and maintenance of all sites.

Contracted and quantifiable costs are included, where available, in the following information. It is not possible to quantify internal costs for each site.

The department's IT contractor provides hosting of departmental sites, and provision of web hosting services. However, internet services are not accounted for separately and it is not possible to disentangle these costs. Web hosting is included within the quantified maintenance costs for the Jobcentre Plus and Worktrain websites.

The following tables provide a list of all departmental sites showing hits on a monthly basis from January 2003.

Total annual hits for the main departmental sites over the last four years, together with quantifiable development and maintenance costs, are as follows:

DWP www.dwp.gov.uk
Annual hits Development Maintenance
2002–03 22,394,004
2001–02 120,004,808 48,143
2000–01 36,415,365
1999–2000 32,487,969 152,000
1998–99 21,980,416
1 launch of Jobcentre Plus and Pensions Service websites.

Note:

The Department's website was launched in June 2001 and replaced the former Department of Social Security site www.dss.gov.uk

CSA www.csa.gov.uk
Annual hits Development Maintenance
2002–03 7,888.168
2001–02 17,171,168
1 Unavailable prior to these dates.
Jobcentre Plus www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk
Annual hits Development Maintenance
2003–04 1458,762,980 1,048,089 385,992
2002–03 553,074,373 492,730 270,555
2001–02 2651,548 153,961 113,368
1 to date
2 launched October 2001.
The Pension Service www.thepensionservice.gov.uk
Annual hits Development Maintenance
2003–04 137,713,725 186,950
2002–03 31,389,060 188,093
2001–02 2217,556 237,577
1 to date
2 launched November 2001.
Worktrain www.worktrain.gov.uk
Annual hits Development 1Maintenance
2003–04 2431,904,963 1,362,057 847,838
2001–02 417,416,769 1,942,769 1,022,764
2000–01 206,974,112 1,725,827 1,072,118
1999–2000 313,435,679 1,511,487 639,766
1998–99 59,422
1 maintenance and development costs incorporates Worktrain For Advisers.
2 to date
3 launched March 2001.
Worktrain www.worktrainforadvisers.gov.uk
Annual hits Development Maintenance
2003–04 1677,306 3 3
2001–02 2109,596 3 3
1 to date
2 launched September 2002.
3 maintenance and development costs incorporated with Worktrain.