Legislation, standards and best practice

Legislation, standards and best practice guidelines for website management are published in a myriad number of places - government websites or industry bodies such as W3C, for example.

Latest UK local government requirements

ODPM's document "Defining e-Government Outcomes for 2005" is aimed at local government, and has two main sections which impact on website effectiveness:

1. Section 12 - accessibility of services - this requires conformance with Level AA of the W3C Web Accessibility Guidelines and compliance with the Government Interoperability Framework (e-GIF) including the Government Metadata Standard (e-GMS).
2. Section 13 - High take-up of web-based transactional services - requires 24/7 monitoring of websites in order to measure availability - to be used as a measure of past performance when publishing Internet Service Standards and commitments on service availability. Also covers use of industry-standard measurement tools such as the number of page impressions and unique users to demonstrate rising and sustained use of the website or portal.

Online legislative/standards resources

The following resources are intended primarily for members of the web team to utilise a range of resources that provide guidance on the many requirements placed on this website in the provision of public information. The links may prove useful/interesting to web authors and other users too. This is not an exhaustive list but merely a sample showing some of the principal resources.

General website related legislation:

• The Data Protection Act 1998 
• The EC Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications 2003 

e-Commerce legislation:

• The e-Commerce Directive 2002
• The Consumer Protection Act 1987 
• The Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 

Accessibility/Validation:

• The W3C MarkUp Validation Service
• Disability Discrimination Act 1995 - Revised Code of Practice

PAS78 "Guide to good practice in commissioning accessible websites"

Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 78 has been developed by the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) in collaboration with BSI British Standards. This PAS outlines good practice in commissioning websites that are accessible to and usable by disabled people.

PAS78 covers areas such as:

• how disabled people use websites
• defining the accessibility policy for the website
• web technologies
• accessibility testing and maintenance
• contracting web design and accessibility auditing services.

It gives recommendations for:

• the management of the process of, and guidance on, upholding existing W3C guidelines and specifications
• involving disabled people in the development process and using the current software-based compliance testing tools that can assist with this.

The guidelines are applicable to all public and private organizations that wish to observe good practice under the existing voluntary guidelines and the relevant legislation on this subject. It is intended for use by those responsible for commissioning public-facing websites and web-based services.

Who to contact

Authors or approvers - or any council officer - is welcome to contact a member of the web team for further advice about these (or other relevant documents) if required. Call 793 3534 or email webmaster@salford.gov.uk.

This page was last updated on 4 November 2011