Government to shed excess website baggage

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The government plans to close more than 500 websites as part of its effort to transform its online presence to ensure individuals and businesses can more easily locate the information they need.

Today's announcement forms part of the Transformational Government strategy, launched in November 2005, and will see any relevant data from culled sites transferred to www.direct.gov.uk and www.businesslink.gov.uk.

Following the first annual review of the six-year strategy, additional sites have been earmarked for review later this year with plans to make further closures, in a move that will benefit tens of millions of users.

The government claims that reducing the number of sites is "the natural next step" as users become more drawn to so-called super sites to search for and digest information. Examples of such super sites include the BBC and Directgov.

In addition to benefiting citizens, the government's wider transformation plans will massively reduce costs and improve operational efficiency.

Some of the initiatives in place are already bearing fruit.

Transport for London (TfL), for example, has shaved 30 per cent off its human resources (HR) overheads by making use of a shared services centre. Other projects underway in the Ministry of Defence or education community are also realising many benefits through the innovative use of technology.

"This report demonstrates how millions of people are benefiting from our use of technology everyday," said Pat McFadden, the Minister for Transformational Government.

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

Based on the review, the government has created an implementation plan of what it hopes to achieve by July this year, but it also recognises that much of the transformation can't and won't occur overnight and is well aware the journey will be a challenging one.

Many of these objectives build on the original aims of the strategy.

"In 1997, fewer than 16 per cent of households had a mobile phone and fewer than one in ten used the internet," said Cabinet Office Minister John Hutton when the transformation strategy was unveiled in 2005.

"Private companies have been swift to shape their services around people's needs and lifestyles - now public services need to raise their game and offer people the levels of convenience, choice and efficiency they rightly demand."

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