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 Michael John Foster (Labour) on Thursday, 26 February 2009 on behalf of the Department for International Development.

Departmental Databases

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what the cost of maintaining the databases owned and managed by (a) his Department and (b) its agencies was in (i) 2006, (ii) 2007 and (iii) 2008.

Answer: The Department for International Development (DFID) owns and manages a number of internal databases that support financial, human resources, document management and other information systems.System controls, validations and administration processes ensure that the data is as accurate and up-to-date as possible. These activities are considered part of the normal system running and are not separately logged or costed.DFID also owns the following websites that are operated by external organisations on behalf of DFID."1. The Research 4 Development (R4D) portal.""2. The NARSIS website of DFID-funded projects with natural resources components.""3. The Infrastructure Connect website of DFID-funded research engineering and infrastructure projects."We are unable to separate data maintenance costs for these systems without incurring disproportionate cost.

Secondary information