That was the usual pattern in the UK too, until GDS. (We used to have world class computing facilities in the past before outsourcing them, but that was pre-Web). Credit to those involved (and to Francis Maude, the Conservative minister who believed in the project and gave them sustained political cover - I am decidedly not a fan of the Tories but that was very good work).

Italian digital team has a similar website. https://designers.italia.it/

But I believe believe most Italian agencies or local governments (around 22,000) don't follow those guidelines yet.

"all this stuff is outsourced to consultancy firms that deliver unresponsive, buggy sites for absurdly high prices." it's a good description for MOST (not all) Italian Government web presence.

Don't remind me... The german COVID vaccinations sign-up page being down every time someone even looks at it the wrong way has been a constant news topic over the last few days.

Also goes for stuff like election software, getting the basics of the basics wrong - not even checking user privilege on admin pages.

Government form pages often just fill out PDFs for you that you have to print, finalize and send off yourself.