25723 (2026). Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall to the Minister of Health

25723 (2026). Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall to the Minister of Health: What was the full scope of the $150,000 of external consultant "development services", in relation to decommissioning of Health New Zealand websites, referred to by Health New Zealand, what procurement process, if any, was used to engage that consultant, and who was engaged?

Hon Simeon Brown: I am advised that approximately $150,000 (including GST) was spent on specialist development services to support the amalgamation of the former tewhatuora.govt.nz website and the former consumer website, info.health.nz, into the current national website platform. Services included technical development work required to support the consolidation that was not available through internal capability. I am further advised that the supplier engaged was Somar Digital, which was engaged through a procurement process completed in 2025. I am further advised that savings have already been made from the website consolidation programme, which exceed the costs spent. Savings have been recovered through reduced hosting fees, vendor costs, mandatory updates, and third-party compliance reporting. Additionally, fewer websites mean fewer staff are needed to maintain channels.