9,500 responded online to request for suggestions but no departments willing to amend any of their policies

This article is more than 10 years old

This article is more than 10 years old

The government's first attempt at crowdsourcing its coalition programme has ended without a single government department expressing a willingness to alter any policy.

Crowdsourcing involves soliciting knowledge and expertise from the public to help find solutions to problems. The coalition asked the public to respond to its programme on government websites. It received 9,500 replies online.

However, its formal responses, published on each website, shows Whitehall regarded the process largely as an endorsement of what it was already doing.

In cases where most of the submissions conflicted with existing policy, the department simply restated the policy. The departmental responses were published last Friday without publicity.

The government has two other significant crowdsourcing exercises under way, including a Treasury-led request for the public to suggest ways to save money, which received 60,000 responses.

The government has also asked for suggestions on what laws it should abolish.

Simon Burall, director of Involve, a group advising bodies on consultation, said: "You have to give the government some credit for trying to do this, but badly designed consultations like this are worse than no consultations at all. They diminish trust and reduce the prospect that people will engage again. This is a dangerous problem for a government that is going to have to take people with them when they make very difficult decisions."

Among the subjects covered were charges for alcoholic NHS patients, opposition to raising the pension age, the capital gains tax increase, the route for a high-speed rail line and an end to the badger cull.

Faced by calls for a ban on immigration, the Home Office replied: "We are pleased to see broad support for our proposal to limit migration so that net migration is scaled back to the [1990s] level."

The Department of Energy and Climate Change says in its response: "A theme which emerged was that you want this coalition to display a real sense of urgency in addressing two challenges: securing energy supplies, and decarbonising the economy. We agree." It then sets out what the government is already doing.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, facing demands to abandon plans to revisit the issue of hunting with dogs, says: "The government wishes to give parliament the opportunity to review [the law] although it is not currently a priority."

The Department for International Development's response to questions over the plan to spend 0.7% of national income on overseas aid by 2013 was: "Dropping this pledge would be a serious mistake."