The Government intends to rationalise its 820 websites, such as businesslink.gov.uk and ukti.gov.uk, reviewing use and costs.

The site efficiency review, which will report in time for September’s Spending Review, will look at getting remaining sites to cuts costs by 50% by moving to common infrastructures, according to the Cabinet Office.

Cabinet minister Francis Maude is to work with digital entrepreneur Martha Lane-Fox to decide how government websites can be used to put public services online and to increase the number of people who can use the internet.

But while specialists said it could be a “short-sighted” move that will get rid of both the good and the bad, there will still be opportunities for the digital sector.

David Ainsworth, partner at digital corporate advisor Green Square, said, “Generating engagement is no longer as relevant as providing services and functionality. If your USP is creative tease — persuading people to buy a packet of Pringles through Flash — it won’t carry much weight. But if your agency skills are functional and user-friendly, with strong back-end experience, then I think you’re going to be better placed.”

Margaret Manning, CEO of Reading Room, which has worked extensively on government projects over the past ten years, said the ability of the digital industry to show accountability is where agencies can have an edge.

“We have to be continually mindful of ROI,” she said. “My feeling is that we can become more consultancy-based in the public sector. We’ll have to understand business problems and help clients set objectives, doing a serious job of saving money.”

Ben Rudman, joint MD of MMT Digital, which has several contracts with NHS trusts in the Midlands, agreed that exploiting digital know-how to streamline work processes and bypass bureaucracy is where future opportunities will lie.

“Rather than coming at it from a marketing point of view, it’s about finding ways to make these sorts of public service accountable,” he said. “Within the NHS, for example, there’s very low digital comprehension. It’s not IT we’re talking about, it’s about making services more efficient.”

Last week’s supporting report by the Central Office of Information underlined extreme inefficiencies on the sites for Business Link and UK Trade & Investment, as well as the squandering of resources through the duplication of messages by quangos and government departments — in particular those bidding against each other for Google search terms.

Last year’s Digital Britain report outlined how more than 95% of approximately 4,000 citizen-facing websites, including the DVLA and The Pension Fund, would be moved within the Directgov citizens’ portal by 2011. The changes were supported by a high-profile online ad campaign (nma 26 November 2009).