2.17 Departments noted that the biggest cost for standard releases was staff time and that they had no systems to record that staff time - often a small element in many officials' jobs. Eight departments, however, provided estimates of staff costs associated with preparing and publishing the standard transparency requirements in 2011-12. The costs range from £53,000 to £500,000. These represent a lower bound for the cost of standard releases because they only capture staff costs and do not include, for example, costs of upgrading IT systems or payments to contractors. While these costs are low, relative to the total spending of the departments, they are incurred by administrative functions, such as Human Resources and Finance, where costs are being cut significantly.