No website windfall
The government is reportedly threatening to axe a portion of its 820 websites in a bid to cut spending, as the COI revealed a damning report on cost-efficiency.
According to a Central Office of Information (COI) report, the government forked out just shy of £94.5m on developing and running its websites, coupled with hefty staffing costs of approximately £33.5m...and that was just for 2009-10.
With the recent emergency Budget and new government keen to wield the axe, paring back its own departments, it is of little surprise that cabinet minister Francis Maude reportedly announced a review of the costly websites.
The report revealed a quarter of government departments could not produce the running costs for their website, while approximately 16 percent are were unaware of how taxpayers used them and therefore what value for money they represent.
The NHS Choices and Business Link websites were among the most expensive to develop, gobbling up non-staff costs of approximately £21m and £35m respectively, according to the report.
It also said the UK Trade and Investment website attracted an average of 28,000 users to its site every month, but cost a huge £4m to build in the first place. Consequently, it has left the government with little change from £12 per visitor.
The most popular sites based on the average number of unique users per month were NHS choices with 6.2m users, HMRC with about 3.5m and Business Link with just over £1m consumers. However, directgov.uk from the department of Work and Pensions was the most sort-after site with just over 8.5m users.
According to the report, the most cost-efficient websites include: HMRC, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, plus the department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which all managed to deliver their service for between 2p and 11p per visit.
