Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2010/11/23/directgov_ceo_job_in_doubt/

Casualty of Web 2.0: Directgov CEO job in doubt

'Sharp teeth' claim first victim

By Kelly Fiveash

Posted in Legal, 23rd November 2010 15:36 GMT

The government’s plan to bring management of its online services under the roof of the Cabinet Office has left the future of the Directgov CEO job, which was surprisingly vacated by Jayne Nickalls just last week, in doubt.

A Cabinet Office spokesman told The Register this afternoon that once the government has a new “executive director for digital and information” boss, all elements of the Directgov portal – including its management – would be under review.

When pushed about whether that meant the CO wouldn’t be looking for a replacement for Nickalls' position, he said that the newly-installed executive director “will look at how the structure will work, and everything will therefore be under review.”

As we reported this morning, Nickalls left her £95,000 per annum job just days before Martha Lane Fox’s strategic review of the Directgov website was published.

The CO spokesman told us that “Jayne decided to go in a different direction” now that the structure of Directgov was being rejigged.

Under that plan, the department is also asking Directgov and Business Link, which deals with biz info and transactions, to create a proposal of what would be involved to converge the sites into a single domain.

He did not comment on whether Nickalls was unhappy with the CO’s plans for the government web portal. ®