To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what guidance his Department issues to other Government Departments on their use of the Completely Automated Public Turing Tests to tell Computers and Humans Apart (CAPTCHAs); and which Departments' websites use CAPTCHAs. (196982)

The Cabinet Office has issued no specific guidance on CAPTCHAs and it holds no central records of which departmental websites use them. Responsibility for information security and accessibility measures of individual websites lies with the individual Departments.

The overall policy for Government Departments on website registration is set out in the Registration and Authentication e-Government Strategy Framework Policy and Guidelines (Version 3.0, September 2002):

http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/upload/assets/www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/csia/regandauthentn0209v3.pdf

Government websites should also comply with the Government's website accessibility guidelines:

http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/upload/assets/www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/publications/government_it/consultations/pdf/delivering_inclusive_websites1.pdf

Copies of both these documents have been placed in the Libraries of the House.