Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between David Rutley and Nick Hurd

Wednesday 12th March 2014 Commons Chamber

[Henry Smith (Crawley) (Con)]

9. What progress he has made on replacing individual Government websites with gov.uk.

[The Minister for Civil Society (Mr Nick Hurd)]

So far, we have closed an astonishing 1,789 Government websites. We are in the process of moving the remaining 200 on to gov.uk by July 2014. In that process, we are not just saving £42 million but providing, at long last, a single source of consistent, clear information on Government policies.

[David Rutley]

I welcome the action that my hon. Friend is taking. Will he update the House on the progress that is being made on digitising the apprenticeships application process, and tell us when it will be available on gov.uk?

[Mr Hurd]

That is a very important service, for reasons that the House understands, and it is a priority for us. We have built a prototype, which will be tested with users over the coming months, and our hope is that a version of this important service will be available from October this year.