Management Toolkit

DWP predicts boost in annual IT budget

Kable

Published: 18 Aug 2008 10:40 BST

The Department for Work and Pensions estimates that its IT budget will rise 12.5 percent to £1.24bn for this financial year, due to a higher level of spending on development costs.

It spent £1.165bn in 2006-07 and £1.099bn in 2007-08, a 5.7 percent decrease on the previous year, according to figures provided to GC News by the department under a Freedom of Information request.

Stephen Timms MP, a departmental minister, had indicated higher IT project spending in April, when he provided figures showing DWP would spend an average of £438m a year in 2008-10 on specific projects, compared with an average of £350m a year in 2005-08.

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In another FoI response, HM Revenue & Customs said that it spent £787.4m in 2007-08, down 14.3 percent on its £918.4m budget in 2006-07. It did not provide information on its estimates for the current financial year.

However, it did release a breakdown of spending. Last year, it spent £582.9m on IT services and equipment (74 percent of the total), £10.9m on IT equipment (1.4 percent), £201.9m on IT software and development (26 percent) and £1.7m on software licences (0.2 percent).

In total, the two government organisations responsible for benefits and taxation spent £1.89bn on IT in 2007-08.