Government closes half of its web sites over past year

The coalition has claimed it has halved the number of central government web sites over the past year, as it continues its drive to save money and make public services more accessible.

The Central Government Websites report from the Central Office of Information (COI) reveals that 1,526 sites have now been closed since the web site rationalisation programme began over five years ago.

Specifically, there are now just 444 central government sites open, compared to 820 last year.

The COI said that it had kept a particularly tight grip on new sites being created, arguing that any new public bodies must use either their sponsoring departmental web site or the independent.gov.uk portal.

Examples of web sites that have been shut down over the past year include hmcourts-service.gov.uk, hmprisons.gov.uk and the site of the Identity and Passport Service.

Most departments have managed to combine significant numbers of sites, for example, the Cabinet Office managed to converge 123 sites while the Foreign and Commonwealth Office converged 271.

The Department of Education, meanwhile, closed three web sites – Teachernet.gov.uk, Governornet.gov.uk and Standards.gov.uk – as part of this process, saving over £1.7m.

Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude said the report shows the ambition of the government and the significant process it's making.

"We are cutting costs, duplications and contradictions to make government web services easier to use and cheaper for the taxpayer," he added.

Although the drive to rationalise the number of government web sites began in 2005, the coalition has adopted it as a central aim in its bid to drive down costs after Martha Lane-Fox's Revolution not Evolution report of November 2010 revealed "significant duplication" and a "highly inconsistent" user experience across government sites.