By Lucy Phillips
13 May 2011
Ministers expect to save more than £65m a year on internet publishing by launching a single government web domain, a prototype of which has been launched this week.
The move was recommended by internet entrepreneur Martha Lane Fox, who published a review of government digital services last year following her appointment as the coalition’s ‘digital champion’.
By moving central government departmental website information into one place, the government expects to save over 50% of the £130m it spends on internet publishing every year. It also hopes the public will find it easier to navigate public services.
A prototype single domain, named alpha.gov.uk, was launched on Wednesday and will be online for feedback for two months. It is the first time the government has tested its web services in this way.
Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude said: ‘Interacting with the government online is, with a few notable exceptions, lengthy, complicated and generally painful.
‘We inherited hundreds of websites all providing separate government services, which cost a lot and make it incredibly difficult to find what you are looking for. We are trying to change this.
‘We are already dramatically cutting the number of government websites to save million pounds per year and to make government services easier to access and use. We are now taking this a step further and launching the first prototype of a single government website.’
Tom Loosemore, deputy director for the Single Government Website project, said further savings would also be reaped. ‘If people who are not yet online can be tempted into doing just one of their (typical) four or five monthly government transactions online, then that would save the government – and hence taxpayers – about £1bn each year,’ he said.
