Council sites must improve
- Posted:
- 00:00 16 Mar 2000
- Topics:
- IT Management
With price wars raging among Internet providers and the Government urging local authorities to do more business online, what is the state of local authority Web site provision, asks Mike Simons.
The Society of Information Technology Management (Socitm) has just published a report, Better Connected? A year 2000 snapshot of local authority Web sites, and it makes uncomfortable reading.
The survey looked at 420 local authority Web sites across the country over a period of 10 weeks. Of the 467 local authorities, 400 have Web sites. This represents a growth of 12% in the past year. Socitm classified these sites into four categories:
Of the surveyed sites, 77 sites had moved up at least one category in the year since Socitm last carried out its Web site survey, however, there is a long way to go before even the best offer citizens a full range of information and services online.
A key part of the survey was the ability of Web sites to answer questions citizens might need to ask in specific circumstances. The report found that, "Most local authority Web sites fall well short of being able to meet this assessment."
Half the councils did not reply to an e-mail asking about disabled access to libraries and swimming pools. Only one-in-six replied within 24 hours and one took 21 days to reply.
Socitm's testers also tried to find the sort of information a single parent living in council property might need, asking questions about housing benefit, the address of the nearest Citizens' Advice Bureau and JobCentre. About 30% of councils could not handle the enquiry and only 8% were satisfactory or better.
Testers also posed as a multinational business looking for a new site. Of the councils 17% ignored this service and 36% did it satisfactorily or very well.
Socitm warned local authorities they must "grasp the opportunities of electronic service delivery. The reason for this is not that Government policy requires it, but that the general public's expectations are increasing because the technology is driving organisations everywhere towards e-commerce."
Key recommendations
Local authority Web sites must:
