[LINK] UK government to create 'super websites'

Sandra Henderson SHENDERS at nla.gov.au
Thu Jan 11 09:42:49 AEDT 2007


and won't it then become that much more difficult to keep things up-to-date, and less likely that individual agencies will put much effort into that...
Just how are they "ensuring" that quality of service won't be affected...
And, conscious of the problems I encounter in linking parts our our site to other agency sites, who's making sure nothing important is actually disappearing completely in this change - we've certainly seen important government reports and the like disappear from the .gov.au domain here in Oz when govt agencies have changed name/responsibilities, redesigned websites, amalgamated with another agency...

Sandra Henderson
Manager, Research, Coordination Support Branch
National Library of Australia
CANBERRA  ACT 2600
Phone: +61 2 6262 1481
Fax: +61 2 6273 2545
Email: shenders at nla.gov.au

-----Original Message-----
From: link-bounces at anumail0.anu.edu.au [mailto:link-bounces at anumail0.anu.edu.au] On Behalf Of Ivan Trundle
Posted At: Wednesday, 10 January 2007 10:13 PM
Posted To: Link List
Conversation: [LINK] UK government to create 'super websites' 
Subject: [LINK] UK government to create 'super websites' 


This appeared on Kable's website tonight:
http://www.kablenet.com/


Government to create 'super websites'
10 January 2007

[Whitehall is to shut down 551 websites to make access to information easier for citizens and businesses, the minister for Transformational Government has said]

Launching the delayed Transformational Government annual report 2006, Pat McFadden said over half of central government websites will face closure over the next year.

Ninety of the 551 websites have already been closed. Agreed dates for the remaining are expected to be released shortly.

Relevant information from the closed websites will be transferred to the governments 'super websites', Directgov and Business Link.

The closure of the sites is expected to save the Treasury £9m over three years.

Out of the total of 951 central government websites, 26 are "certain"  
to be retained, says the report. A further 374 of the 951 will be reviewed for possible closure by June 2007.

McFadden said on 10 January 2007: "This report demonstrates how millions of people are benefiting from our use of technology every day.

"We are dealing decisively with the proliferation of government websites - getting rid of more than 500 - and we are ensuring that the quality of our services will not be affected by these changes."

Prior to McFadden's speech at the Transformational Government II conference, organised by Kable, a Cabinet Office spokesperson told GC
News: "The Cabinet Office alone has made an annual saving of £174,000 by closing all of its websites apart from its corporate website.

"As for non-finance benefits for citizens they are immeasurable.  
People do not want to surf the net for information; they want to find it as quickly as possible. Our ultimate aim to to close 95% of Whitehall's websites."

Directgov, launched in 2004, receives over 5m visits a month. It currently involves 18 government departments and has links to services in nearly all 388 councils in England.


Source: Kable's Government Computing
Publication date: 10/01/2007


--
Ivan Trundle
http://itrundle.com ivan at itrundle.com
ph: +61 (0)418 244 259 fx: +61 (0)2 6286 8742
skype: callto://ivanovitchk



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