Written question asked by Baroness Laing of Elderslie (Conservative) on Thursday, 5 February 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 9 February 2009. It was answered by Baroness Hughes of Stretford (Labour) on Monday, 9 March 2009 on behalf of the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

Children: Databases

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what the development costs of ContactPoint have been; and what the estimated maintenance costs are for ContactPoint in 2009.

Answer: The estimated development and set-up cost of ContactPoint is £224 million (most of which is expected to be incurred by the end of the financial year 2009-2010). This includes: the costs of adapting existing systems that will supply data to ContactPoint and the costs of ensuring that data is accurate; adapting the day-to-day systems used by practitioners so they can access ContactPoint from them; and the costs of introducing robust arrangements to ensure proper security, and effective ContactPoint user training.The latest estimate for running (maintenance) costs in 2009-10 is just under £44 million including inflation, of which most will go directly to local authorities to fund staff to ensure the ongoing running, maintenance, operation and security of ContactPoint.

Secondary information