§ Mr. SpringTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will estimate the cost savings for(a) his Department as a whole and (b) embassies and high commissions, of the use of IT, including e-mail, in the past year. [130123]
§ Mr. Battle[holding answer 13 July 2000]: In the past year the benefit to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office resulting from prior investment in IT is estimated at (a) £20 million for whole Department, of which (b) over £11 million was overseas.
These figures include new cost savings last year of £0.5 million in the UK messenger service, resulting in part from the use of e-mail. They do not include savings which will accrue once our new Information and Communications Technology infrastructure is in place.