Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Area 7C
Nobel House
17 Smith Square
London
SW1P 3JR
Telephone 08459 33 55 77
Website www.defra.gov.uk
Guy Freeman
Whatdotheyknow.com
Our ref RFI 3229
Date 22 March 2010
Dear Mr Freeman
Provision of requested information
Thank you for your request for information about the closure of the climatechange.gov.uk
website which we received on 3 March 2010. Your request has been considered under the
Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Defra has never owned the climatechange.gov.uk domain name. We believe you may be
referring to climatechallenge.gov.uk, as a redirect from this site was in place to
direct.gov.uk until March 2009. The redirect was set up when climate.challenge.gov.uk
was closed in March 2008 as some material previously on the site was rewritten and
published to Directgov. The redirect remained in place for 12 months at which time it
expired.
We do not hold any documentation that outlines the specific ‘decision to redirect’ the
climate challenge website. However, we are able to provide the reasoning behind the
decision to close the site and enclose an audit which outlines which content areas were
chosen to be added to Directgov (Annex b).
Reasons for the closure of climatechallenge.gov.uk
1. Under the Government-wide website rationalisation process, all Government owned
websites are being reviewed with the intention that citizen-facing content and
services are delivered through Directgov (for more information see Sir David
Varney’s Service transformation paper, Annex c). As part of this process, Defra
assessed the climate challenge website and decided that it met this criteria and that
the content should be delivered through Directgov.
2. The climate challenge website was funded under the umbrella of the Tomorrow’s
Climate, Today’s Challenge campaign which had a definitive timescale. The funding
for this campaign, including allocated budget for the hosting of the website, ended
on 31 March 2008.
The information supplied to you continues to be protected by the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988. You are free to use it for your own purposes, including any non-
commercial research you are doing and for the purposes of news reporting. Any other re-
use, for example commercial publication, would require the permission of the copyright
holder. Most documents supplied by Defra will have been produced by government
officials and will be Crown Copyright. You can find details on the arrangements for re-
using Crown copyright on OPSI (Office of Public Sector Information) at:
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/click-use/index.htm
Information you receive which is not subject to Crown Copyright continues to be protected
by the copyright of the person, or organisation, from which the information originated. You
must ensure that you gain their permission before reproducing any third party (non Crown
Copyright) information.
In keeping with the spirit and effect of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 all information
is assumed to be releasable to the public unless exempt. The information you requested
may now be published on our website together with any related information that will
provide a key to its wider context.
If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me. I also attach annexe a giving
contact details should you be unhappy with the services you have received.
Yours sincerely
Robert Jones
Email: xxxxxx.x.xxxxx@xxxxx.xxx.xxx.xx
Annexe a
Complaints
If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your request you may
make a complaint or appeal against our decision within 40 working days of the date of this
letter. Please write to Clive Porro, Head of Defra’s Information Rights Team at Area 1B,
Ergon House, Horseferry Road, London, SW1P 2AL (email:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxx.xxx.xxx.xx), who will arrange for an internal review of your case.
Details of Defra’s complaints procedure can be found at:
www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/complain/info.htm. If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply
directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Please note that generally the
Information Commissioner cannot make a decision unless you have first exhausted
Defra’s own complaints procedure. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF