The home page of a public-body website: what it should show
The home page is the face of a public body online. It should be instantly recognisable and tell visitors within seconds whose website they are on and how to reach the organisation. At the top, show the body’s name and its logo or official emblem, if it uses one. Somewhere on the home page, usually in the footer so it appears on every page, give the official identity details: legal name and status, registered address, registration or VAT number where the body has one, phone number and email address. Showing when key information such as structure, contacts and FAQs was last updated helps visitors trust that it is current.
No EU law sets a template for a public-body home page, so this is good practice rather than a legal duty. One element, however, is required on every public-sector website under the Web Accessibility Directive: the accessibility statement, which must be published on the website itself, both in Ireland (S.I. No. 358 of 2020, Regulation 7) and in Malta (S.L. 418.03, regulation 7). The simplest way to make it easy to find is a link in the footer of every page, next to the privacy notice and cookie settings.
The home page is also the right place for a short summary of news, press releases, events and the most important announcements in the body’s area of work. If you publish news, let people follow it without visiting the site: an email subscription, an RSS feed or another format that shows what has changed since their last visit.
If your organisation receives reports of wrongdoing, for example under whistleblowing law, link from the home page to a page that explains what can be reported, how, in which languages and when, how reports are recorded, whether reporting is free of charge, whether the person must give their name and contact details, and how any personal data will be processed. We cover this page in integrity and whistleblowing on a public-body website.
Finally, the home page is where most visitors first meet the cookie banner. Under the Irish Data Protection Commission’s guidance on cookies, non-essential cookies such as analytics must not be set before consent, and an option to reject, or to manage cookies by type and purpose, must be given equal prominence to the accept button. See also what the EU accessibility rules require of public-sector websites.