Departmental Internet

David T.C. Davies
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will list the redesigns of websites operated by (a) his Department and (b) its agencies since 27 June 2007; and what the (i) cost to the public purse and (ii) date of completion of each such redesign was.

Mr. Wills
A major refresh was carried out in early 2009 to improve the quality of the Ministry of Justice website:

www.justice.gov.uk

Costs include research, redesign, prototype build and content migration by external suppliers. It is not possible to separately identify the in-house staffing costs associated with this project and therefore these costs are not included. There were also no hosting or infrastructure changes.

(i) Cost: £92,968.75

(ii) Completed: April 2009

Visitors to the MOJ website have more than doubled since the creation of the Department in May 2007 and user research demonstrated a need to improve the user experience, providing easier access to information and services and delivering more engaging content. The redesigned website delivered simpler navigation, improved news and consultations pages, enhanced search functionality and the capability to deliver visual and audio content (i.e. embedding YouTube).

As there is more use of the internet for Government services, we need to make information about the work of the Department more readily available to citizens and the media, enhancing transparency and accountability for what we do. All our internet users—who include legal practitioners, academics and researchers—are able to use the range of resources published on our website either to work more efficiently within the justice system or to engage with the Department's day-to-day work and to contribute to our published consultations on proposals for change. This is the basis for investment in better web services for citizens.

(a) Other website redesign work carried out since 27 June 2007 for agencies of the Ministry of Justice:

Office of the Public Guardian

www.publicguardian.gov.uk

Cost is for work by external suppliers and does not include in-house staffing costs:

(i) Cost: £14,981.25

(ii) Completed: October 2007.

Tribunals service

www.tribunals.gov.uk

carried out a redesign using in-house resources. It is not possible to separately identify the in-house staffing costs associated with this project.

(i) Cost: not separately identified

(ii) Completed: November 2008.