Home
Local News
Parliament
Articles
Speeches
Richard
Media
South Norfolk
Contact

RSS

The government aims to streamline its web presence by closing almost 1,000 unnecessary websites.

SOUTH NORFOLK MP Richard Bacon has said that the government's websites are “spinning out of control”, as a new report finds that the government does not know how many websites it actually has. Mr Bacon said: “The government’s websites are spinning out of control. The government does not know how many websites it runs and over a quarter of government bodies cannot say how much their websites have cost the taxpayer”.

“Just having a website appears to be an end in itself for many departments and agencies. The government needs to sort out its online services and collect the data it needs to run responsive, cost-effective websites”.

Mr Bacon was speaking as the Commons public accounts committee published its report on government on the internet. The government spends an estimated £208 million a year on delivering services online. However, the report finds that a quarter of government organisations cannot provide data on the cost of their websites and 16 per cent of government organisations do not have a good knowledge about the users of their websites.

The government is to move most of its services and related information to two websites, direct.gov.uk and businesslink.gov.uk, by 2011. The government also aims to streamline its web presence by closing almost 1,000 unnecessary sites.

29 April 2008
 

See also:
PAC REPORT: Government on the Internet