Public priorities
The Government has ploughed thousands of pounds into developing iPhone apps it has been revealed, just days after announcing a cull of costly websites.
According the BBC, developments costs for the apps were between £10,000 and £40,000 per app, and included a jobseekers' app and travel advice tool from the Foreign Office. The broadcaster said the Home Office turned down a Freedom of Information Request for details of the apps on the grounds of security fears.
The priciest app is reportedly a DVLA offering which is apparently ‘a master class in changing your wheel'. Also allowing users to calculate mileage, fuel plus double as a hazard light, the app is estimated to cost about £40,000.
The ousting of such details is an embarrassment to the Government which has recently announced a review into its 820 websites, with others to be axed in a bid to save costs. A scathing report by the Central office of Information found the government splashed out on large-scale website development, notching up costs of 94m on top of a staggering £32m of running costs.
A DVLA spokesman told the BBC such an app will make it easier for people to renew their car tax or update their diving licence, inferring it would boost road safety and save on reminders from the DVLA. "We considered how an application could help with this but no final decisions have been taken and the app, for now, is still in development," he said.
Consequently it has not been confirmed how much of the estimated £40,000 cost of the application has been spent, but development is now ‘on hold'.
Critics of the government's digital strategy have also blasted the Jobcentre Plus app, which 53,000 users have downloaded, prompting people to question how seemingly unemployed people afford their iPhone. Some experts have also raised concerns that the pricey app will not work with Apple's new iOS 4.
"It seems many Government bodies have given in to the temptation to spend money on fashionable gimmicks at a time when they are meant to be cutting back on self-indulgent wastes of money," Mark Wallace, a campaign director of the Tax Payers' Alliance, told the BBC. "It is ridiculous not only that they are commissioning these apps but that some of them are supposedly secret on grounds of national security."
However, a whole host of departments has vowed they have no plans to develop apps, including the Ministry of Justice and the Cabinet Office, which said the Government has frozen marketing and advertising costs for the year.
