“We are completely committed to getting the government web back under control. The days of vanity sites are over. It is not good enough to have websites which do not deliver the high quality services which people expect and deserve. We will take tough action to get rid of those which are not up to the job.”
Francis Maude, Minister for the Cabinet Office. 24 June 2010 [Read more…]

“From 1 April 2004 to 31 October 2004 there have been over 300,000 visits to the Access to Best Practice pages on the DTI’s website. During this period 100,000 hard copy publications have been ordered and dispatched. In October alone there were 50,000 downloads of electronic documents from the site.”
Nigel Griffiths, Parliamentary Under-Secretary at DTI (2004) [Read more…]

“Has the transition from the old Business Link system been a painful experience? Hâf (Merrifield) is nodding, so it must have been. It is fair to say that the system had a lot of conflicting demands made of it over a comparatively short period.”
David Irwin. CEO of the Small Business Service (2nd May 2001) [Read more…]

“I visited many Business Link centres, which I understand are funded in some way by government although I am not at all clear how. To be frank, apart from meeting a nice bunch of people, there was no real business advice dished out other than simple stuff you could pick up and learn for yourself on the Internet.”
Lord Sugar. House of Lords Debate, Hansard (24th March 2011) [Read more…]

“We still have considerable duplication of effort at local level. From a business point of view, it’s a muddle, from a funding point of view, it’s a waste. The way forward is a single unified business organisation at a local level. It presumes that the existing Chamber network, TECs and Business Links will disappear.”
Ian Peters. British Chambers of Commerce Director-General (1997) [Read more…]