§ Mr. Don FosterTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the expenditure incurred by his Department, agencies and non-departmental public bodies on(a) the setting up and (b) the operation of web sites, 292W indicating the cases in which the expenditure has been above that budgeted; and if he will list for each web site (i) the topics covered, (ii) the current average number of hits per month and (iii) the estimated expenditure on each web site for each of the next three years.[70963]
§ Ms Hewitt[holding answer 15 February 1999]: HM Treasury currently operates two websites, HM Treasury (www.hm-treasury.gov.uk), and The Euro (www.euro.gov.uk). The UK Debt Management Office, an executive agency of HM Treasury operates the DMO site (www.dmo.gov.uk). All three sites are run from the HM Treasury server and share running costs. There are currently no non-departmental public body websites.
HM Treasury's website cost approximately £20,000 to set up in September 1994. Operation costs initially were £8,000 a year for a leased line, and one full-time Range C post (Internet Editor). The Euro site was set up in May 1998 at a cost of £7,000. Current operating costs for both sites are around £60,000.
Topics covered on the HM Treasury site include News Releases, Budget information, economic information, speeches, savings, guidance. The current average number of hits per month is 832,829.
The euro site provides information on business preparation for the euro. The average number of hits per month is currently 191,366.
The expenditure for each of the next three years is difficult to estimate, but server and personnel costs are likely to be around the current level.
The United Kingdom Debt Management Office website was set up in January 1999 at no additional cost. The website operates on the Treasury server with additional running costs of £50 per annum for domain name registration. The site is edited by DMO staff, with no additional staff costs.
Topics covered are news releases, publications and background information on the DMO. It is too early to establish hits per month, but the site has received 76,254 hits to date. Estimated costs for the next three years are nil.