Government cagey about future of HSE website

The Government’s website rationalisation programme and decision to plough ahead with the development of a single government domain to host all main public information has thrown the future of the HSE website into doubt.

A Cabinet Office report released last month shows that 444 central government websites are currently open, compared with 820 last year. The streamlining process aims to reduce unnecessary spending and, at the same time, pave the way for a single government Web domain.

This domain – a recommendation made last year in a government-commissioned report by lastminute.com founder Martha Lane Fox – would host all key public information, building on the services delivered through the Directgov website, as well as offering additional features and reducing the need for individual government sites.

Rumours that the HSE website could be under threat began to circulate following publication of the minutes of the HSE’s Tyre and Rubber Industries Safety Action Group’s meeting in April. The minutes read: “HSE’s website – this may become part of the ‘DirectGov’ website, along with all other Government departments and agencies. Safety Action Group (SG) members expressed their concern at this possibility.”

On seeing these minutes, John Hamilton, head of safety, health and well-being at Leeds Metropolitan University, made some inquiries last month to the HSE, which replied: “There are no current plans to close down HSE’s website and it remains an important resource for both employers and employees.”

Indeed, the wealth of information on the website was one of the main reasons why the HSE decided to sacrifice its Infoline telephone service, which closed in September as part of an efficiency measure. Since then, the Executive has been encouraging businesses and members of the public seeking information and official guidance on health and safety to visit its website, which it describes as “a huge knowledge bank where people can access and download information free of charge and use interactive Web tools”.

The HSE website currently receives 26 million visits a year and had 11,546,036 unique users in 2010/11. It has recently been enhanced with interactive tools for low-risk businesses and an expanded ‘frequently-asked questions’ section.

Only 134 of the 444 central government websites currently live have been given approval to stay open. However, although a Cabinet Office spokesperson confirmed to SHP that Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith had requested that the HSE website be retained “for the time being”, he added: “The list of websites that may be retained pending decisions around the single domain will continue to be reviewed from the perspective of cost-efficiencies in effective communication with the intended audiences.”

User data from the Cabinet Office show that the HSE site performs very well against other government sites – a factor that should be taken into account when any decision is made on its future. A snapshot of the statistics show that:

• 72.9 per cent of users – got most, or all of what they needed;
• 81.7 per cent – said they were satisfied, or very satisfied;
• 91.2 per cent – described the site as good, or very good for ease of use;
• 79.8 per cent – described the site as good, or very good for ease of finding information;
• 83.8 per cent – described the site as having a good, or very good search facility; and
• 92.7 per cent – would definitely or probably recommend the site to others.

The Cabinet Office spokesperson told SHP that the HSE is not part of the beta project for the single domain and that “there are no plans to migrate HSE content on to the test site”. He added: “The beta development of a single government domain will go live in early 2012. The project will then be assessed and the way forward developed following the results of the beta launch.”