Bonfire of the websites will save millions, government says

HUNDREDS of costly government websites are to be axed in a bid to save millions of pounds, it was announced yesterday.

The Cabinet Office said there would be a review of all 820 sites – with the intention of scrapping up to 75 per cent of them of them.

Those that remain will be under pressure to cut their costs by as much as half.

The announcement came as the Central Office of Information published a report into 46 of some of the biggest government websites which alone cost 126 million last year. One website – uktradeinvest.gov.uk – was shown to cost 11.78 per visit, though the department it represented later claimed that this figure was inaccurate.

Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude said the previous Labour government had, in 2006, promised to scrap 422 of its then 794 sites. However, the coalition had now identified 820, he said.

He added: "The days of 'vanity' sites are over. It is not good enough to have websites which do not deliver the high-quality services which people expect and deserve.

Those identified include entities such as non-governmental development bodies and quangos.