Slightly Better Connected: annual Socitm survey paints a gloomy picture

Five years on from the rush to make public services available online, the development of local authority websites has run out of steam. The latest instalment of an authoritative annual survey, the Better Connected report, shows "little evidence that councils have invested in their sites over the last 12 months" to enable self-service government.

"Overall, there has been little improvement since last year and there is an increasing gap between the best and worst performing websites," Better Connected 2010, published by Socitm Insight, concludes.

Better Connected 2010 is based on an annual survey of the 433 local authority websites in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland that has been carried out since 1999. This year it added the sites of 46 other public sector organisations such as fire and police services.

About half the questions in a 120-question survey were designed to test websites' information content; the remainder assessed performance with measures such as currency, links, transactions, location, navigation, A-Z, search and accessibility

Sites were awarded star ratings, with 11 achieving the maximum four stars. Stuart Harrison at Lichfield district council has plotted the results on a map.

Martin Greenwood, programme manager for Socitm Insight and author of the report, said: "Given the urgent need for councils to deliver more for less, it is really disappointing that the performance of this lowest cost service delivery channel seems to have stagnated over the last year. This should not be taken as a criticism of web managers, many of who do an excellent job with limited resources. Rather, responsibility lies with councils' top management, many of whom still do not recognise the key role of the website in reducing corporate costs through the efficient management of customer enquiries."

The report is available now to Socitm subscribers and will be available to others from mid-March at a cost of £415 www.socitm.net.