At Sitemorse we published our 2019 Q4 UK Local Government INDEX this week. The INDEX has been published quarterly since 2006 and ranks the websites of over 400 UK local government authorities, based on User Experience, Search Engine Optimisation and Governance, Risk and Compliance.

Our Q4 INDEX was compiled following over 270 million tests, checks and measures across over 830,000 URLs. 

Congratulations to Blaby District Council for taking first place, a position they last occupied in Q2 2012 and to Broxbourne Borough Council for rising 365 places up the table.

Overall, 58 local authorities improved the Accessibility of their website, whilst 28 have seen it decline and 318 have made no progress.

Only 4 local authorities, Dartford Borough Council, North Devon Council, Harrogate Borough Council and the Orkney Islands Council passed the WCAG 2.1 Level A and AA tests on 100% of their web pages. Indeed, there are 3 local authorities that fail the level A and AA tests on every page.

European Union Directive 2016/2102/EU, creating a set of standards for EU public sector bodies, using European standard EN 301 549 V1.1.2 (2015-04) was approved on October 26, 2016. It came into force for in the UK on 23 September 2018. The aim of the regulations is to ensure public sector websites and mobile apps can be used by as many people as possible.

This includes those with:

• impaired vision
• motor difficulties
• cognitive impairments or learning disabilities
• deafness or impaired hearing

New public sector websites have needed to be complaint since 22 September this year, all other public sector websites need to be compliant by 22 September 2020.

If we focus purely on Accessibility and compare the Q4 INDEX results with those from Q3:

• 73 local authorities scored 7 or higher, an increase of 6
• 142 local authorities scored 4 or less, a decrease of 6
• 59 local authorities scored zero, a decrease of 2

An honourable mention should be made to Essex County Council who have increased their accessibility score by 9 points – well done!

Top ten websites

1. Blaby District Council
2. Dartford Borough Council
3. North Devon Council
4. South Northamptonshire Council
5. Comhairle nan Eilean Siar
6. Orkney Islands Council
7. Somerset West and Taunton Council
8. Broxtowe Borough Council
9. Wigan Council
10. Scarborough Borough Council

Five Most improved websites

• Broxbourne Borough Council
• Harrow Council
• North Norfolk District Council
• Luton Borough Council
• South Somerset District Council

The full 2019 Q4 UK Local Government results can be found here: Sitemorse Q4 2019 UK Local Government INDEX