HC Deb 08 December 2003 vol 415 c279W
Mr. Willis

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the cost is of(a) establishing and (b) maintaining the recently launched benchmarking website; and if he will make a statement. [141787]

Mr. Miliband

The new benchmarking site was a joint development between the DfES, Ofsted and the Audit Commission building on the already successful Audit Commission site. It allows, for the first time, for all maintained schools in England to be able to compare and contrast their income and expenditure with other similar schools in a consistent way. The ability to benchmark financial information allows schools to identify areas in which savings in school budgets can be made that can then be reinvested into further improvements or redistributed to areas of greatest educational need. The website will also allow schools and LEAs to identify ways in which to improve performance in education at minimal additional cost.

The cost of designing and building the newly completed Schools Financial Benchmarking website was approximately £220,000. The cost to maintain the website will be just over £10,000 per year. Other costs may be incurred if the application is to be developed further as a result of user feedback.