1 About these guidelines

1.1 Purpose

This document establishes standards for public sector websites in New Zealand. The standards are based on core values of the Public Service:

• Equity
• Integrity
• Trust
• Economy

We provide practical ways to express these values in public sector websites. However, we don't attempt to cover every circumstance with a prescriptive rule. Rather, we encourage you to make sound judgements based on an understanding and appreciation of the four principles above, and how they can be applied to provide sound, trustworthy and truly accessible public sector websites.

1.2 Stewardship

The State Services Commissioner is Steward of the New Zealand Government Web Guidelines (the "Guidelines"). The E-government Unit of the State Services Commission is the Custodian of Guidelines. The role of Steward and Custodian were developed as part of the Policy Framework for Government-held Information (see www.ssc.govt.nz/Documents/policy_framework_for_Government_.htm) [CAB (98) M 22/27 refers].

In these Guidelines "we" and "us" refer to the E-government Unit of the State Services Commission as Custodian.

1.3 Maintenance

The Custodian is responsible for recommending to the Steward any changes required to the Guidelines at least on an annual basis.

1.4 Current version

The current version of the Guidelines is available at http://www.e-government.govt.nz/web-guidelines/ . Anyone can suggest changes to the Guidelines by sending comments to web.guidelines@ssc.govt.nz .

Suggestions will be evaluated and may be included in future revisions.

All major revisions to the Guidelines supersede earlier revisions.

We list intermediate revisions below:

1.5 History

The first version of these guidelines was written in 2000. It was based on guidelines developed for government organisations in the United Kingdom. Members of the GOVIS (http://www.govis.org.nz) web support forum modified them for use in New Zealand. The E-government Unit offered a draft for consultation and issued version 1.0 in August 2001 incorporating the feedback we received.

Since then, minor changes have been made to version 1.

The current version is the first major revision since we issued the Guidelines.

1.6 Interpretation

In these guidelines, interpret "must", "should" and "may" as set out in RFC2119 (see http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2119.txt) .

These Guidelines were written with Public Service agencies primarily in mind. Local authorities, other government entities and non-government organisations wishing to adopt the Guidelines may substitute appropriate terminology, for example, by replacing "Minister" with "Mayor".

1.7 Application

CAB Min (03) 41/2B directs all Public Service departments, the New Zealand Police, the New Zealand Defence Force, the Parliamentary Counsel Office, and the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service to implement the Guidelines as follows:

• All new or revised content produced for existing non-Guideline compliant websites after 1 April 2004 should comply with the Guidelines as closely as possible
• Existing websites should become compliant with version 2.1 of the Guidelines on the Next Occasion of a complete website redevelopment occurring before 1 January 2006
• All websites must comply with at least version 2.1 of the Guidelines by 1 January 2006
• All websites must comply with subsequent versions of the Guidelines produced after 1 January 2006.

Cabinet also invited the Speaker of the House to direct the Office of the Clerk and the Parliamentary Service to implement the Guidelines on the same basis as the Public Service, and invited the appropriate Ministers to encourage State Sector agencies (excluding State Owned Enterprises and Offices of Parliament) and local government to implement the Guidelines.

For applicable agencies, as noted above, the Guidelines must be followed for public websites. Restricted-access websites, such as extranets and intranets, should follow the Guidelines. In particular, agencies must ensure restricted-access sites are accessible to disabled users.

Resources

State Sector Act 1988

Public Finance Act 1989

Human Rights Act 1993

New Zealand Disability Strategy

Cabinet Minute CAB Min (03) 41/2B

1.8 What to read

We recommend these Guidelines be read by

• senior managers (sections 2 - 4 particularly)
• business managers (sections 2 - 8 particularly)
• website managers (sections 2, 5 - 8 particularly)
• communications and IT support people (sections 2, 5 - 7 particularly)
• vendors tendering for government Internet service requirements (sections 2, 5 - 8 particularly)