More than 1,000 gov.uk domains found in breach of government rules
An audit of gov.uk domains has identified more than 1,000 breaches of government guidance and has led to the closure of 471 local government domains.
404 errors were one of the reasons for the breach - Photo credit: Flickr © SEO Link Building
The audit, carried out by Evans Bissessar, the chairman of the Government Digital Service’s naming and approvals committee, looked at all 4,000 gov.uk domains.
Related content
GDS drive shuts down redundant council domains
Dedicated council guidance for domain naming
It identified more than 1,000 breaches, which included inaccessible domains, pages that redirected to a non-government domain and owners that weren’t eligible to own a gov.uk domain, for instance an owner that had become a company since registering for the domain.
Bissessar then worked with the domain owners to correct the problems where possible, or shut down legacy or unused domains where necessary.
This work resulted in the correction of 196 domains and the closure of a further 947 gov.uk domains, of which 393 were central government, 80 devolved and 471 local.
In a blogpost, Bissessar identified some “top picks” of outdated domains that were still registered to the government, which include the Postal Services Commission, the G7 finance ministers summit in February 2005 and Bug2000 – the site set up to help allay fears about the Millenium bug.
Bissessar said that the GDS team now has to maintain trust in the gov.uk name by carrying out we’ll continue carrying out annual checks, ensuring all gov.uk domains are working the way they should and that they are still relevant.
He added that all IT managers in central and local government should familiarise themselves with the relevant naming and registering guidelines.
Share this page
Printer-friendly version
Tags
Categories
CONTRIBUTIONS FROM READERS
Please login to post a comment or register for a free account.
Related Articles
Cabinet Office awards £300k short-term deal to tech specialist
Digital department is expecting ‘increased responsibilities’ as government works on coronavirus recovery
Boris Johnson tells select committee that pandemic response has shown ‘there are some times when we need to move faster’
Government claims using sector expertise is commonplace for the most senior roles
Related Sponsored Articles
SAP Concur says it's time for the public sector to embrace more efficient invoice management technology
Steve Blow, tech evangelist at Zerto, explains why digital transformation efforts could be futile if local authorities don’t address and improve their IT resilience
2020 has been a year of unprecedented change for the UK public sector. Today’s agile working technology enables you to meet citizen needs in this challenging operating environment by empower your...
Organisations need to understand that a single cybersecurity solution alone is not infallible and instead should move towards a multi-layered approach to security, according to experts from...