UK Government Web Archive

Today I learnt how to access old, archived versions of government websites, including those that no longer exist.

The answer? The UK Government Web Archive, hosted by the National Archives. You can browse by category or choose your organisation from an A-Z list. Once you've selected your organisation, you can choose the date of the archived version of their website you'd like to view and away you go. It's really useful, especially for websites that no longer exist (e.g. Inland Revenue). And, of course, it's free.

UK Government Web Archive:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/webarchive/

For more information about the National Archive's government website archiving project:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/webarchive/information.htm

Inside Government Beta Version

Today I learnt that the beta version of the Inside Government website has been launched. Ten departments will be keeping it up-to-date for six weeks. It promises to the best place to keep up-to-date with the government's news, policies, publications and consultations, thereby minimizing the need to scan each department's website separately.

The front page has a "latest activity" section (which will eventually be updated real time) so you know what is going on in government right now. The feed is colour-coded, which each department being allocated a particular colour. Most exciting for me is the fact that each government department will have its own home page within the site, and they'll all have exactly the same lay-out. There will also be policy pages that provide policy overviews and links to all the news and publications relating to that policy, regardless of which department has produced the information.

It looks really promising.

Inside Government website:
https://www.gov.uk/government

Take the tour:
https://www.gov.uk/government/tour

Who does what in Whitehall (and beyond) and how much they earn

Today I learnt how to find out who does what in Whitehall (and the broader civil service) and how much they earn.

I'm feeling lazy today so here is the blurb from the data.gov.uk website:

"Here you can see the most comprehensive organisational charts of the UK Civil Service ever released online, taking another step towards the Government's goal of being the most transparent government in the world and opening up the structure of the Civil Service to public scrutiny.

These structure charts, known as "organograms" include the names, job titles and salaries of all civil service directors and more senior civil servants. They also include details of the numbers, grades, pay ranges and professions of staff within each team, as at 31 March 2011. They are available in a consistent, user-friendly style, giving you a view of the whole of central government in one place." *

I know it sounds like propaganda but who am I to argue with transparency in government? It certainly makes compelling reading. The following departments and bodies are included:

• central government departments
• crime and justice government bodies
• agencies and Non-Departmental Government Bodies
• health organisations
• education and research bodies
• cultural and sporting bodies

* http://data.gov.uk/organogram

Thanks to Sam for this one!