Inland Revenue accused of "failing to perform" online

A management consultancy that blasted the Inland Revenue's website as "failing to perform" after testing its availability last week has been forced into an embarrassing climb-down.

Using monitoring software that acts as a 'virtual user' management consultancy Parallel tested the Revenue's online self assessment tax return portal last week and found it to be unavailable for 38 hours over five days – an uptime of just 75 per cent – prompting the company to issue a statement about the taxman "failing to perform".

But a simple check with the Revenue would have revealed that the site had been taken down over the Thursday and Friday last week for an upgrade.

A Revenue spokesman would not comment on Parallel's claims and told silicon.com the site had been taken down during what is traditionally a quiet time of the year.

He said: "We took it down for routine maintenance."

Roger Hall, spokesman for Parallel, admitted the company's error but said it was part of wider plans to assess the performance of a range of government websites. The company is also finishing off a study of website performance of FTSE100 firms.

Hall said: "We are planning to do a reassessment of the site and other government sites as well."

The Revenue still faces a major task to boost the use of its online filing services. A Public Accounts Committee concluded last year that the department is unlikely to achieve its target of 50 per cent take-up of its online services by 2005 because of security concerns and a lack of incentives for people to use it.