About Directgov
Directgov is the most prominent form of e-Government in the UK. It is a web portal that links together many different central Government departments’ and agencies’ websites. Directgov was set up in 2004, replacing the UKonline website, and it has steadily increased the quantity of information available. Since 2004 the way information has been presented online has been regularly redesigned. The 2005 Transformational Government strategy1 provides a backdrop to the Government’s approach to using IT more smartly as a force for change in service delivery, aiming to make public services more personalised, effective and joined up.
Box 1: The Directgov promise: vision and objectives
Directgov’s vision is to be the citizen-focused digital channel for Government offering a high quality experience for customers by delivering information and services that meet most of their needs within the site in a consistent and accessible style. It will be driven by citizen needs and will be easy and interesting to use.
Directgov will give the citizen:
- Easy and effective digital access to all the public services and information they
need, when and where they need it - Trusted delivery of tailored services to give citizens a simple and convenient
interaction with Government - New ways of communicating, utilising strategic partnerships, community groups
and social media to provide better interaction with Government
Jonathan Shaw, Parliamentary undersecretary of state, Department for Work and Pensions (Oct 2008 – Jun 2009) 2
The idea is that improvements in services are led by public need, as opposed to technology’s capabilities. In theory, this should be good for consumers with improved customer experience and the creation of more responsive services with, presumably, cost savings. A cross-departmental process for achieving transformation in services was put into place in 2005.
Following this in 2006, Sir David Varney led a review of service delivery which focused on key opportunities for delivering services in a more responsive way to consumers. The recommendations from his Service Transformation report3, included making the Directgov and Businesslink (the Directgov equivalent for business customers)4 sites primary channels for Government information and transactions. This recommendation was enshrined in the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review Public Service Agreement target to ‘migrate more than 95 per cent of the total identified websites to Directgov and Businesslink.gov by 31 March 2011’5.
This saw a dramatic reduction in a number of different Government websites (considered superfluous or defunct), the idea being that consumers would now use Directgov as the first port of call for any Government or public service information or transaction.
Users should soon be able to access information on all Government services, complete some transactions, and be directed elsewhere for other information and support. Directgov attracts almost 10 million visits a month6, making it one of the fastest growing websites in the UK. Its information is also available to a limited extent on mobile phones and digital TV. Figures from the Department of Work and Pension (DWP) show the website cost £13.1 million to run for the year 2007-087.
- HM Government, Transformational Government: Enabled by Technology, 2005
- HoC Hansard Written Answers, 22 Apr 2009: Column 764W
- HM Treasury, Service transformation: A better service for citizens and businesses, a better deal for the taxpayer, December 2006
- Business Link. Available at: http://www.businesslink.gov.uk
- HM Treasury, Meeting the aspirations of the British people, pre-budget report and Comprehensive Spending Review, 2007
- Directgov web statistics show visits at 12,470,557 in July 2009, audited by ABC Electronic. These figures exclude partner websites such as jobcentreplus.gov.uk
- HoC Hansard Written Answers, 22 Apr 2009: Column 764W
I find directgov one of the least user friendly websites I have come accross. It does not work with certain browsers and when trying to change details on my driving licence it gave me incorrect information. Only in the printable response to my request did I see I get the correct information and by the time I managed to address what was requested the system had deleted my profile. Surely these things can be made simpler?
Figures from the Department of Work and Pension (DWP) show the website cost £13.1 million to run for the year 2007-08.
- I’ve heard from a couple of sources it now costs £30 million per year – 25p per visit. Can’t someone produce an exact figure, for 2008-09?
Hi David
It’s difficult to pin down an exact figure as its total cost is calculated in different ways. Some figures include the cost of all the content and services of the sites Directgov leads to, others just to the costs of the portal, and others include the advertising and marketing costs (apparently the latest TV campaign is costing £2.05m
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2010-01-13a.310280.h).
We’ll work on getting a break down of costs for the year just gone so it’s clearer.
Thanks for your comment
Liz
Here is a link to annual expenditure from Hansard.
Expenditure on Directgov increased in 2008-9 in recognition to its increased importance in the Government’s strategy for online delivery of public services.
http://bit.ly/cOWQts
I am relatively digitally literate but I do very little on-line via Directgov.
I would prefer to tell Directgov what to do about me. I have moved house ; my father has moved to India ; I want heating allowance and lots of other things.
But the government does not seem to ask the citizen what they want. They build things, but we do not come. So we are fined or advertised at…..
I do not respond well to this
If my parent dies, it still takes 40 phone calls
Why can’t I tell deaths@uk.gov with one e-mail and you sort me out.
This could have been done 1 day after the Varney report ????
In reply to the questions about Directgov costs, as Ian Cuddy says, the increase to £30m in 2008-09 was recommended following Sir David Varney’s service transformation review (http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/prebud_pbr06_varney.htm). The £30m per annum was the figure agreed with HMT under Directgov’s CSR07 settlement as being necessary for Directgov to deliver the website convergence and service transformation programme. This is the total Directgov budget, not just that associated with running the Directgov website or other channels (TV and mobile). There are several PQs on the subject as well as the one Ian cites.
So, 25p per visit is accurate. Sounds expensive to me – incidentally, this doesn’t cover the extra services which operate from DG; the DVLA functions cost £38 million to build, if memory serves. And £2 million on TV ads!? The next question is, where are the exact figures for the savings Directgov has produced?
In response to Tony – do you have an up to date link please? Any more PQs would be of interest as well (I’m not sure how to find them, sorry). Thanks