Information on web archiving
Most interaction between government and the public takes place online. Websites are often the first port of call for politicians and the civil service, business and professional communities. Websites provide a useful historical record of how our interactions with government are changing, and the context in which information is presented.
The National Archives is preserving this rich seam of information by archiving UK central government websites and adding them to the UK Government Web Archive.
Finding pages in the Web Archive
You may be automatically redirected to the UK Government Web Archive if the page you're looking for is no longer current. We've put a banner at the top of each archived page so you'll know that you are no longer in a live site.
Access to archived web pages is free.
You can locate a specific website using our A-Z index.
You can perform a full-text search across our collection using the advanced search (beta). Please note that only sites added to the web archive before late 2008 can currently be searched using full-text search as this service is being updated.
You can also browse the collection by category, via 'Themed collections' or 'Featured website'.
The UK Government Web Archive contains some partial copies of sites. If you find an archived site which seems incomplete you may be able to find a more complete version by trying a different date.
Tips on finding content in the UK Government Web Archive (PDF, 0.47Mb)
If you need any advice about finding the most complete archived version of a site or have any other queries about finding information in the UK Government Web Archive, please email: webarchive@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk.
Using web archived pages
You can often use and browse archived websites as you would on a live site. Due to limitations in the software that harvests website content, some functionality is not available in archived versions of sites. This includes search and most drop-down menus as well as some interactive features such as forms and questionnaires.All the sites in our collection have been archived individually. External links in archived websites will not work.
Some of the early archived websites were collected using experimental technology and therefore only gathered partial content, often without images.
You may find that some archived websites have more than one listing. This is either because the name of the department and website have changed (for example, the Public Records Office is now The National Archives), or it is because the website address has changed (for example, the Department of Health website was http://www.doh.gov.uk/ and is now http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/*/http:/www.dh.gov.uk/).
Contact details on archived websites
Contact details on archived websites, such as email addresses and telephone numbers, may not be current. Using outdated contact details may result in a delay in obtaining the information you require. We recommend that you use contact details found on the live web for organisations which still exist or contact the department now responsible for the functions of an organisation which has closed. If you have any queries please contact the Web Continuity team who will be happy to advise.
Reuse of content hosted in the UK Government Web Archive
Most but not all of the websites on the UK Government Web Archive were created by Crown bodies and are Crown copyright. Unless otherwise stated, you may re-use Crown copyright material obtained from the UKGWA freely in accordance with the Open Government Licence.
Where websites have used third party (non-Crown) material, the copyright status of this material should be clearly stated on the site, either attached to the material itself or on the copyright page. Where the creating organisation was not a Crown body, copyright in the website belonged to that organisation and permission for use should be obtained from it or from its successor. The re-use of copyright material that is not clearly identified as being Crown copyright is not authorised by The National Archives. It is your responsibility to ensure that you have any necessary permissions for the re-use of copyright material obtained from the UK Government Web Archive.
Limitations of web crawling technology
New web technologies and trends develop rapidly, therefore solutions have to be found to enable their successful archiving. Web archiving necessitates continual research into both capture (retrieving and storing data) and accessing (presenting the archived data in the archived site).
Web crawlers are often unable to capture dynamic web pages (pages that are generated via a database in response to a user's request) and search functionality, (as they require interaction with a 'hidden' database). In order to ensure the best possible success for the web archiving, webmasters are encouraged to use a variety of means for both accessing and presenting content.
Continuing access to online documents
Archiving websites helps to ensure continuing access to government's online information.
We ask government webmasters to install a simple piece of software that will redirect you if the link that you've clicked on isn't active, but the information has been captured in the web archive. Please see the web continuity pages for more information.
We also provide advice to government website managers on how best to design and maintain their websites for archiving purposes. We deliver guidance on the software that will enable more comprehensive capture of website content. Please see the Information for webmasters for further details.
Archiving of government websites
Our web archiving programme began in 2003. We originally harvested around 50 selected government web sites using a not-for-profit specialist company called Internet Archive.
When we entered into contract with the Internet Archive, we gained access to their back catalogue. This means that you can find some sites dating as far back as 1997. Please note that archived sites hosted by the Internet Archive do not display the red UK Government Web Archive banner.
Since 2005 archiving has been carried out under contract to the Internet Memory Foundation (formerly known as the European Archive), a not-for-profit specialist web archiving organisation, founded to build an 'internet library' for researchers, historians and scholars.
We started taking 'snapshots' of government websites due to close under the government's website review programme, which started in January 2007. The programme aims to reduce the increasing number of government sites in order to provide a clearer and more user-friendly service for the public.
From November 2008 we began to archive a larger number of sites and to archive some sites at an increased frequency to support our Web Continuity Initiative.
We archive sites according to a regular schedule. If you need any further information about our archiving schedules please email webarchive@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk.
Work with the UK Web Archiving Consortium
The National Archives was a founder member of the UK Web Archiving Consortium which, between 2004 and 2009, worked to develop a common shared infrastructure for the selective archiving of websites. Partner organisations were The British Library, The Wellcome Trust, the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), The National Library of Wales and The National Library of Scotland.
Websites selected for archiving by The National Archives during this period are available through the UK Web Archive or the UK Government Web Archive.
The UK Web Archiving Consortium disbanded in 2009 and The National Archives now works with its successor organisation: The Web Archiving and Preservation Task Force which aims to build on the work of the UK Web Archiving Consortium by drawing on the expertise and experience of many organisations involved in web archiving. The task force has been operational since 2010. Find out more about this group.
Takedown policy
The National Archives has a takedown policy, which explains the circumstances in which material will be taken down from websites. See a list of pages removed from the UK Government Web Archive under the policy.
Contact us/Feedback
We welcome feedback from you on any issues relating to particular sites. If you want to tell us about any issues, or have any comments on the UK Government Web Archive in general, please email us: webarchive@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk
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