Four Whitehall departments significantly increased their spending on IT upgrades in the 2007-08 financial year.
The Department for Transport; the Department for Children, Schools and Families; the Department of Health; and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport collectively spent £59.4m on IT upgrades in 2007-08, compared with £42.2m in 2006-07.
The Department for Transport and its agencies increased spending by 48 percent, from £29.7m to £43.9m in 2007-08. The Department for Children, Schools and Families increased spending by 28 percent, from £7.2m to £9.2m. In both cases, this followed budget increases between 2006-07 and 2007-08.
The Department of Health increased spending by 30 percent, from £3.5m to £4.5m, although both figures are lower than its 2006-07 IT-upgrade budget of £6.8m. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport increased spending by four percent, to £1.9m, although this followed a near doubling of its budget the year before.
The four departments are the only ones to have provided meaningful figures in response to a series of parliamentary written questions from Conservative MP Michael Ancram in October 2008.
The Ministry of Defence; the Department for International Development; the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform; and the Department of Communities and Local Government refused to answer, citing disproportionate costs.
The Department for Work and Pensions — one of the biggest spenders on IT — said upgrades are included within its contracts with BT and EDS, and the costs are not identified separately.
In August, the Department for Work and Pensions said its overall IT budget dropped by 5.7 percent between 2006-07 and 2007-08, but would rise by 12.5 percent to £1.24bn in the current financial year, due to higher spending on development.
