WIREDGOV

Responding to questions in the House of Commons, the government has just revealed that its Your Freedom website will cost approximately £20,000 to run over the coming year.

The cost has been criticised as excessive – but is such criticism fair? How much does a government website cost?

The recent release of official data on government websites allows us to make some comparisons. In a straight comparison of costs (the written Commons answer does not specify whether staff costs are included - this comparison uses non-staff costs) the Your Freedom site nearly makes it into the cheapest 20% of government websites.

But costs are only part of the story, of course: websites are also judged on how many visitors they attract. Higher costs may be justified on the basis that the site attracts more visitors.

See full Institute of Fiscal Studies press release for more information