A web design firm today called on the government to halt its e-government push after concluding that 75% of the government's flagship websites did not work and alienated users.
A study commissioned by London-based Interactive Bureau savaged the prime minister's own site - number-10.gov.uk - as "a mess", citing "inept" navigation, poor maintenance, and the lack of a facility for members of the public to contact Downing Street. Researchers also felt the site mixed government propaganda with independent information from civil servants.
Researchers studied 20 government sites to assess the quality of online information, the responsiveness of departments and agencies to requests for information, ease of navigation, and technical performance.
The study rated the department for education and skills, the equal opportunities commission, and the passport agency as the best sites in government, and the driver and vehicle licensing agency and No 10 as the worst.
Adrian Porter, whose company Porter Research led the study, said the government's failure to make information clear and useful was the most widespread problem.
"All too often masses of material, full of unexplained jargon and convoluted incomprehensible English has simply been dumped into official websites with no thought of preparing it for the public, or helping them understand it," he said.
Common problems included a lack of basic services and information, long waits for pages to load, poor coding that led to technical problems, and poor design, according to the report.
The study concluded that the prime minister's target of putting all government services online by 2005 was "not realistically achievable", and urged the government to put its plans on hold while it improves the websites already on offer.
The government dismissed the suggestion, issuing a statement that called the 2005 target "a valuable incentive to galvanise government departments to get online".
The cabinet office statement read: "A recent [April 2002] comprehensive study of government websites by the national audit office, which is truly independent, found a major positive shift over the last three years in the performance of government websites," the statement read.
"Since 1999 government has given a strong lead in promoting both information-based and transactional services online," it added.
The cabinet office confirmed it had not paid the £425 plus VAT required to obtain the full report from Interactive Bureau.
