§ Mr. John BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what the total cost of his Department's website was in the last 12 months; and how many hits it received in the same period. [104202]
§ Mr. MacShaneFor the past two years the FCO has been implementing a major Internet infrastructure project to enhance its global web presence. This includes a new FCO website (www.fco.gov.uk), a new UK Visas website (www.ukvisas.gov.uk), separate websites for all British missions worldwide, and a new portal site about the UK (www.i-uk.com). The latter joins up the online work of our key public diplomacy partners:
British Council, British Tourist Authority, InvestUK and Trade Partners UK.
The total cost of the project is £10 million funded by the Treasury's Capital Modernisation Fund. It is not possible to separate out the cost of the FCO site alone.
The number of page impressions for the FCO site over the past year is 26.4 million, although during the last fortnight page impressions have peaked at 700,000 per day.