§ Dr. CableTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what actions he has taken or is taking to ensure that the websites of his Department, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies are accessible to partially sighted and blind people; and if he will make a statement. [117357]
§ John HealeyThe Chancellor's departments, agencies and non-departmental public bodies are working together to ensure that both their current and future websites are accessible to the blind and partially sighted.
The Inland Revenue's site has been won the RNIB's accessible website award, HM Customs and Excise are current redesigning their site to conform with the RNIB's `See it Right' standard and HM Treasury's site has been designed to meet the world wide web 231W consortium's web accessibility (W3C WAI) guidelines and was recently recognised by a National Audit Office report as one of the most accessible in government.
The National Savings and Investment website has been built to meet the W3C WAI guidelines and the Valuation Office (VOA) is working to be fully compliant with the Office of the E-envoy guidelines.
The Debt Management Office's website is currently being re-designed. Accessibility to the website is a priority and the DMO will be following the RNIB Accessibility Best Practice guidelines in taking forward this work. National Statistics currently meets all but one of the priority W3C WAI objectives and will be seeking to address areas of non-compliance when it redevelops its website, subject to specific data visualisation and presentation issues. The Royal Mint's current site is programmed to meet W3C WAI objectives and accessibility will be central to the forthcoming redevelopment of the site. The main websites of the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) and OGC
£ Department (i) 2003–04 (ii) 2004–05 HM Treasury 0 0 Inland Revenue Not yet available Not yet available HM Customs and Excise 2,570,000 4,300,000 Office of National Statistics 0 0 Debt Management Office 529,000 This information cannot be disclosed. Exemption 6 of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information applies Government Actuary's Department 59,000 62,000 Valuation Office Agency 270,000 Not yet available Royal Mint This information cannot be disclosed. Exemption 7 of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information applies See column (i). Exemption 7 applies Office of Government Commerce 0 0 OGC Buying Solutions 40,000 0 National Savings and Investments (NSI) 2,000,000 3,000,000