Written question asked by Mark Hoban (Conservative) on Friday, 7 November 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 11 November 2008. It was answered by Pat McFadden (Labour) on Tuesday, 25 November 2008 on behalf of the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.

Home Computing Initiative

Question: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what the estimated (a) total, (b) start up, (c) monthly running and (d) wind up costs to the public purse were of the home computing initiative.

Answer: The Home Computing Initiative was started up with a mixture of Government and Industry contributions. The Office of the e-Envoy led the project in conjunction with industry partners from the HCI Alliance (BT, Intel and Microsoft). The only costs to Government were our initial start up contribution of £370,000 + staff resources.Memoranda of understanding between the Office of the e-Envoy and each key partner and Department was drawn up and agreed in November 2003, formalising each organisation's commitment.It was agreed that Government's objective was to produce and distribute information packs, promoting the availability of the 1999 tax break, help industry create a website, and arrange a joint industry—Government launch event on 26 January 2004 supported by PR activity as well as promote the benefits of use of ICT."(c) Monthly running costs were met by the HCI Alliance and this Department does not hold this information.""(d) There were no winds up costs for Government as HCI schemes were run by Industry (HCI Alliance), not Government. Home Computing Initiative Schemes (HCD were not Government schemes."

Secondary information