£35m spent to develop and maintain HMRC site

The recent announcements by the government relating to costs to develop and maintain their websites has led to a flurry of interest in the subject by researchers and industry experts. In the wake of the announcements, it has now been revealed that the HMRC Business Link site costs £35m to maintain, every year.

Critics of the site, which is there to support businesses across the UK to network, develop and turn a profit, suggest that the investment in the product is a waste, as the site is technically flawed and does not offer a comprehensive service to users.

The Cabinet Office admitted last week that the site was extremely costly to maintain, in comparison to the return on investment in terms of visitors. The only other site which nears Business Link when it comes to expenditure is the NHS Choices service which cost £21m. However, the NHS site enjoys six million visits monthly, as opposed to just one million for the HMRC site.

The site expense has been broken down in to design, hosting, content management and testing costs. Serco, who developed the site initially, now sub-contracts the technology running the site to BT.

The HMRC website was set up in response to criticism of the previous Business Link service, which was thought to be a waste of expenditure. Business Link operated as a series of offices around the UK. The government made the decision to bring the service online, incurring the present costs.

Serco, in response to criticism about the large expenditure, has issued a statement: “We recognise the unprecedented fiscal challenges facing the nation and we welcome the opportunity to work with Government to continue to deliver even greater efficiency savings.”

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