Communities Department outlines IE8 upgrade plans

The government has said that upgrading to IE8 would be too costly

Communities minister Eric Pickles has announced that his department is to upgrade to Internet Explorer 8 (IE8), apparently contradicting the government line of sticking to IE6.

Pickles said in a Twitter post: "Discussing with my department plans to upgrade staff to IE8 and ditch IE6."

A spokesperson for the Communities Department told V3.co.uk that the move was being carried out for business continuity reasons rather than over security concerns.

"The upgrade is not security related as there is currently no evidence that IE6 is at risk when appropriately patched," they said.

"There is a focus on remaining able to integrate with the wider business world and ensure the department is compatible with the necessary technologies. Internet access requirements and associated business needs are driving this initiative."

The department also said they had set a target date for an initial pilot release of the new browser starting from the 15 September 2010.

The move marks a departure from the government's official line that it has no plans to force departments to upgrade to IE8, citing time and cost as barriers when responding to a petition calling for the upgrade.

"It is not straightforward for government departments to upgrade IE versions on their systems. Upgrading these systems to IE8 can be a very large operation, taking weeks to test and roll out to all users," the Cabinet Office said in a statement.

Other European Union governments have urged citizens to stop using IE6 after Chinese hackers infiltrated Google's corporate systems in January using an IE flaw.

Microsoft has been actively trying to push users off the old browser, and will be hoping that its new IE9 browser scheduled for a beta release in September will encourage more users to upgrade.