The government spent a total of £12.4bn on IT in the
financial year ending April 2006.
Latest figures from the government’s CIO Council show that local
government was the highest spending sector within the public
sector, with £3.3bn spent on IT in 2005/2006.
In second place was the health sector, with the NHS spending
£1.4bn and NHS Connecting for Health, an agency of the Department
of Health charged with delivering the National Programme for IT in
the NHS, spending £1.1bn.
Other government big spenders include the Department for Work
and Pensions, with £1.1bn and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs,
with £989m.
Within local government, IT spending breaks down into 46% spent
on staff, 12% software, contracts for services at 11%, 11% on
hardware, 9% on data and voice services, 3% consultancy, and 8% on
other services.
The CIO Council produced a report on its activities as part of
the Transformation Government Strategy.
“It is amazing to think that we operate in over 140 countries,
run some of Europe’s and indeed the world’s largest computer
systems, and process tens of millions of transactions every single
day of the year,” said government CIO John Suffolk.
“The IT profession within the public sector has an estimated
50,000 dedicated people. Every day their dedication and hard work
support those who keep the traffic flowing, who ensure that
benefits are being paid, who save lives, who educate our children
and who prevent crime.”
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