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Many Government services are now being offered online, a trend which has been accompanied by a rise in companies offering additional or similar services for a fee, even though the official version is free or subject to a lower charge.
The ‘unofficial’ providers may believe they are offering additional value that justifies their charges, but members of the public often complain of feeling misled into believing they were dealing with either the official government website or a site endorsed or authorised by the Government.
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“Although some of these third party sites include statements confirming they are not part of the Government, the use of colours, look and feel of the site and other wording sometimes suggest otherwise. Often they will stop short of copying the official names and logos, making it difficult for Government departments to take legal action.
"Indeed, some of these third party sites may genuinely be adding value to the official government services or offering additional services to those offered by Government, so whether a site is misleading may not be clear-cut.
“LITRG believe the key to helping people avoid problems when using online services is to ensure as far as possible that official government websites are as visible as they can be. We think that a good way to do this is to introduce a simple Government kitemark that could be displayed next to the official websites in search engine results.
"This would at least ensure that no matter whether the service retains a separate site outside GOV.UK, what other advertising is on a page or where the site appears in the results, users would know at a glance which site is the official government one. Moreover, any unauthorised attempts to use the kitemark could be swiftly dealt with under copyright rules.”
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Susie Hughes © Shout99 2014
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