Cabinet Office written question – answered at on 6 July 2010.
Tom Watson
Labour, West Bromwich East
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how much the Your Freedom website cost to build; what his most recent estimate is of the projected running costs for the website in each of the next three years; what the monetary value is of his Department's contract with Delib in respect of the website; on what date the creation of the website was authorised by his Department's Efficiency Board; and if he will make a statement.
Francis Maude
The Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The total cost of building
www.hmg.gov.uk/yourfreedom was £3,200 including vat. The application, which was bought off the shelf, is situated on an existing website
The most recent estimate for projected running costs for the website in this financial year is £19,853.98 including VAT; this includes the building costs mentioned. This is an approximation because the overall cost is related to the amount of traffic received by the application. This cost could go up or down according to volume of traffic. It is not possible to give running costs over a three year time period as the lifespan of the project has not yet been decided.
The creation of the Your Freedom website did not come before the Efficiency Board as the estimated cost was below the £20,000 threshold for approval.
Yes3 people think so
No2 people think not
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The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
