The UK Government is closing 95 per cent of its web sites in what it claims is a drive to make important information more readily accessible for internet users. The cuts will save £9 million and are part of what they call a “Transformational Government Strategy”. The official press release, which is short on detail, can be found at
http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/newsroom/news_releases/2007/070110_ciostrategy.asp

There have been several postings on the LIS-Profession discussion list and Stella Dextre Clarke has forwarded further information from Linda Humphries of the Delivery and Transformation Group to the list:

“The Times’ figures are based on an extrapolation of the ratio of how many sites have agreed to close and those that are definitely to be retained (e.g. departments’ corporate websites) – 26 to date. There are still 374 sites to be reviewed. Of the 951 sites reviewed by their departments, 90 have already closed and 461 are planned to close. The Times’ figures are based on an extrapolation of the ratio of how many sites have agreed to close and those that are definitely to be retained (e.g. departments’ corporate websites) – 26 to date. There are still 374 sites to be reviewed. The information currently held on sites that are closing will be migrated to Directgov, Business Link or the departments’ corporate sites as appropriate. This will result in a reduction of the number of locations in which information for citizens and businesses is held, rather than reducing the amount of information available.”

There is now a list of sites to be closed available as a PDF at http://www.cio.gov.uk/documents/annual_report2006/website_list.pdf

Looking through the list I noted several web sites for various marketing boards that I thought had long gone. I also see that www.tradeinfo.com is for the chop. The URL rang a ver loud clanging bell in my head and I found it on my own list of statistics sources. My comments on the interactive data tables, for me the most useful section of the site, currently are “I strongly recommend that you download and view the PowerPoint demonstration first”. Ah yes, it is all coming back to me now. I had another look at it today and it still takes me ages to work out how to track down data. Whether the information will be any easier to access via other UK government sites, or if it will just disappear into a Whitehall black hole, remains to be seen.

HM Revenue & Customs: Home Page

This is the web site of the new UK government department responsible for, amongst other things, VAT and Income Tax and formed by the merger of the Inland Revenue and HM Customs and Excise. Having spent so many hours, days and weeks trying to find my way round the old Customs & Excise site I was horrified at the prospect of having to start all over again. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see a clear, easy to read home page and was able to navigate quite easily through the site to most of the information that I needed. The search option got me quickly to documents and guides that I could not easily locate via the menus. Overall, I am impressed.