In the UK there was a problem of commercial companies setting up look-alike websites and charging a fee to do stuff that is free to do via the correct gov website. It's not as common now, partly because UK orgs put pressure on Google to fix it.
For me the top four links are clearly marked ads. (Although some people may miss that [ad] marker). After the ads there are two links to the proper gov.uk website. Then there's a link to a commercial site called "Deed Poll Office", who charge for a services that's free.
In the past that TheDeedPollOffice link ranked higher.
Similar things used to happen for passports and tax self assessment.
How is this not a scam? The company is just presenting their form to ask for the same information, relaying it to the government, and charging you $90 for the privilege.
To me a scam involves paying money and then not getting anything for it. You get exactly what you pay for.
These is just competing businesses / orgs vying for your custom, where one org (the govt) is charging $0, so you should totally use them, but won't if you're foolish.
Regardless, one tiny example of all google results (goverment form services) is... the vast minority of google search results. It is certainly not "invariably" a scam.
...quality controls? They're paying customers, Google has no incentive to prevent scam sites, which is why the results and adverts are infested with them, and have been for decades.
That is quite incorrect. Google has more incentive than anyone else to deliver only the best results and ads to searchers. Delivering them to scams harms their reputation and would eventually erode the CTR.
Um... no?