New report identifies employment and benefits websites among worst in UK e-Government

Websites offering information and services for the jobless and people on benefits are among the worst in e-Government a new report reveals.

The analysis conducted by leading automated website testing company Business2WWW, using its SiteMorseô software found that users of sites such as www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk (Job Centre), www.worktrain.gov.uk (National Jobs and Learning Website) and www.dwp.gov.uk (Department for Work and Pensions) may be presented with error pages when trying to access vital information and services.

A combination of simple website errors such as missing files, poor management of website structures, illegal characters used in web addresses, lack of compliance with the Governmentís own search index system and hosting websites on servers that are not able to manage demand are the most common causes of problems.

The new research comes just days after Rt. Hon. Phil Woolas MP, Deputy Leader of the House of Commons reported that 68 per cent of Government services are now online.* All Government services are due to be online by 2005, although Mr Woolas could not state an exact month.

Nicholas Le Seelleur, Director of Business2WWW said, ìThe Government has achieved a lot by placing much of its information and services online. However getting services online is one thing. Ensuring that citizens can actually access vital information and services is quite another.í

Research has shown that those most likely to use public services are also the least likely to use, or be comfortable using, the Internet.**

Mr Le Seelleur continued, ìKey to the success of the Governmentís online strategy is encouraging the primary users of public services to access such services via the internet. Itís imperative that websites delivering public services for jobless people and benefits claimants are as faultless as possible, otherwise the very people the Government must encourage to use e-Government services may be put off. The primary users of public services should be an e-Government priority.í

The SiteMorseô report identifies www.worktrain.gov.uk as the Governmentís worst website in terms of quality.

Most e-Gov Websites Fail Disabled Accessibility Tests

The SiteMorseô analysis also judged the performance of e-Government websites in line with the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), a drive to attain a high degree of usability for people with disabilities. Only 14 sites attained full compliance with WAI. 14 other websites were less that 10 per cent compliant ó four of which failed on every page.

Mr Le Seelleur said, ìThis does not bode well for the Governmentís obligations under the Disability Discrimination Act to make websites equally accessible to people with disabilities, the deadline for which is October 2004.í