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COMNET-IT Review On Member States – United Kingdom
“e-government: a strategic framework for public services in the Information Age” fulfils the commitment in the Modernising Government White Paper to publish a strategy for Information Age Government. It focuses on better services for citizens and businesses and more effective use of the Government's information resources. Implementing it will create an environment for the transformation of government activities by the application of e-business methods throughout the public sector. The strategy challenges all public sector organisations to innovate, and it challenges the centre of government to provide the common infrastructure which is needed to achieve these goals. The strategy is endorsed by the Information Age Government Champions. (The Information Age Government Champions are 36 senior officials from central and local government, the devolved administrations and the NHS. They are supporting the e-Envoy in implementing the e-government agenda and are leading the development of e-business strategies within their departments, agencies and sectors). The UK government has recently pledged to speed up the introduction of online services, bringing the deadline forward from 2008 to 2005. This e-government drive to offer online services to businesses and individuals by 2005 matches the Prime Minister’s stated commitment to ensuring that everyone in the UK will have internet access by 2005. On 30 March 2000 Tony Blair said: "I want the UK to be the world's leading internet economy. Businesses and individuals across Britain are responding to this challenge, getting the UK online. I am determined that the government should play its part, so I am bringing forward our target for getting all government services online, from 2008 to 2005. This will mean that people and businesses will be able to access government services 24 hours a day, seven days a week." The Prime Minister admitted that it is a challenging target which will require more joined-up working between departments, less reliance on paper trails and the development of new ways of working. "But it is [a target] we have to meet if our UK online strategy is to succeed".
The Cabinet Office has been charged with seeing through this initiative and minister Ian McCartney said the government has been making good progress. "We offer online advice in areas such as health, overseas travel and consumer protection, and from next week [April 2000] self-assessment tax returns can be filed over the internet and payments made electronically," he said. The following text is based on a Cabinet Office Statement dated 20 April 2000:
The Commissioning of the UK Online PortalA groundbreaking project to help people access a wide range of Government services through a single electronic point of entry will be developed in partnership with BT (British Telecommunications plc), it was announced today. The partnership with BT will provide solutions for a fresh approach to the relationship between the citizen and government. People will be able to customise the home page to create direct links to the services they frequently use. The system will also be able to remind people about changes in services or important dates, such as the need to renew TV Iicense or car tax. It will develop over time as new features are trialed and customer feedback is taken into account. Minister of State at the Cabinet Office, Ian McCartney who has responsibility for e-government said: "The best services are driven by the needs of customers - not the convenience of the providers. Our plans for a fast-track portal makes the UK a world leader. This will be a truly innovative use of technology to make life easier for people, whether they need a one stop shop where they can find all the necessary government information relating to a life episode, such as having a baby or moving house, or whether they need to notify a change of circumstance to a Department. "Findings from the People's Panel (a randomly selected jury of 3,000 citizens whose opinion is canvassed by MORI to monitor re-action to government proposals) showed a clear demand for making some key services available outside standard working hours. We are now consulting with government and agencies and with local government representatives to work out the best way of meeting that demand, but there is no doubt that technology will have a big supporting role. "The award of the contract to BT for the development of UK Online is an important first step towards building a platform, for making Government accessible around the clock."
Alex Allan, the recently appointed e-Envoy (whose career has included being aide to several Chancellors and Prime Ministers as well as travel in the Commonwealth and postings to Australia) added: "We want to enable people who want to access public services through to the net to do so. This won't replace one-to-one contact with Departments for those who want or need it, but will offer consumers more choice about how and when they access the services they need. UK Online will be a key step towards our commitment to bring e-business revolution to the heart of Whitehall." Sir Peter Bonfield, BT's Chief Executive said: "We see this as a service for which BT and HM Government share common goals and values, particularly the delivery of socially inclusive services to the citizen, and the promotion of technology for the benefit of the community." The government portal, a gateway for the citizen to access Government services, has three layers; the government systems and the data interchanges standard specifications; the government gateway which does much of the joining up of information sources and finally the interface to the citizen - UK Online. This service will provide a personalisable front end to the portal so that citizens can tailor what they see to what they need. A test service will be developed by July 2000 and will be formally launched for public use after the summer holidays. A fully operational service will run from the summer of 2001. The project board will be chaired by the e-envoy Alex Allan. It will include representatives of key stakeholder Departments and local government to ensure that the UK Online site is developed in a way that is consistent with both existing and planned online services. The project team will be based in CITU. The project, which was originally tendered under the working title of 'me.gov' has been procured under the CCTA [Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency] Government Telecommunications Communications (GTC) Framework contract. The procurement was conducted in two phases; a Request for Proposals (RFP) was issued to all eligible contractors and from the proposals a short list of two was selected to go forward to the next stage, the Invitation to Tender (ITT). This announcement is for the successful contractor of the ITT phase.
Formal evaluation processes were operated at both the RFP and the ITT phases. These processes involved user departments, local authorities, the private sector and CITU. The procurement was conducted by CCTA. [See www.ogc.gov.uk/ogc/ogchelp.nsf/pages/redirect.html for information of this autonomous body]. On 1 March, the Prime Minister made a commitment to ensure that everyone who wants it will have access to the Internet by 2005. Access will be in the home through a personal computer, Digital TV or games console, on the move through a mobile telephone, or at a nearby public access point. Current Government initiatives to increase individuals' access and skills include:
The Prime Minister and members of the Cabinet agreed a new target of offering all Government services online by 2005 on Thursday 30 March, at a Special Information Age Cabinet meeting. Government services currently online include:
Other services soon to be available online include:
The Government published on 3 April 2000 its E-government strategy for information age government. It applies to central government departments and agencies, local government and the NHS. It is available on the internet at www.iagchampions.gov.uk/Strategy.htm E-envoy Alex Allan will own the e-government strategy and identify new opportunities for cross-government IT initiatives and how they should be carried forward. The e-envoy will support the Chief Secretary to the Treasury and the e-Minister in a 'cross-cutting' review in the 2000 spending review on the knowledge economy, which will consider the funding of electronic government.
The Cabinet Office's Central IT Unit will manage the government portal and promote policies on technologies such as digital TV, smartcards, websites and call centres as well as common policies on the management of information. Public sector organisations will develop e-business strategies, provide services which are accessible via the government and other portals and implement common standards and policies for new technology. Results of a recent People's Panel survey into the demand for round-the-clock public services is available at www.servicefirst.gov.uk.
Editorial commentThe above ambitious and leading edge developments must be seen in their correct context of a Britain in boom. The “Recession” of a decade ago seems history and e-commerce start-up businesses (dot.coms) are seen as the future - despite the recent slump in “high tech” share prices around the globe. With hindsight, British businesses are daring to call their Y2K projects success stories and technology has not lost its glamour - yet! Mobile phones are everywhere and the next generation of mobile computing is eagerly awaited. For those not able or not willing to purchase a home computer, access to the Internet and to learning IT skills is getting easier all the time. The government is funding Internet access via schools and libraries. A new venture easyEverything.com is set to bring commercial efficiency and cost-cutting to the concept of CyberCafes which were previously scarce - this new business brings 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, pre-paid, high speed Internet access to users at rates which depend on demand when they visit the easyEverything.com high street shop. For home-users without a personal computer, set-top boxes combined with satellite, cable or digital television are a new means of limited, but useful Internet access. And for all those with a home computer, there is now a choice of free telephone services to selected free ISPs (it was previously argued that despite the free services provided by many ISPs, the cost of dialling up and browsing would deter e-shoppers and hold back e-commerce). However not everything in the British e-government garden is rosy; the Civil Service is seen as too dependent on external consultancies and lacking inhouse supervision experience; the National Audit Office has recently condemned the government’s handling of some major IT projects. The Passport Office automation backfired last summer when manual handling had to be resorted to and compensation paid to delayed travellers. A separate report by the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee highlighted 25 recent public IT project failures which including a military project which was scrapped after running up bills of £41 million and replaced with a successful project costing £6 million. This 40-page report “Improving the Delivery of Government Projects” ISBN 0 10 204700 6 is available for purchase from The Stationery Office at a price of GB£8 which seems cheap compared to the wisdom contained.
The government also suffered from the choice of slogan for their new portal site as the name chosen “UK Online” was already in use by a major ISP! As time marches on the perceived IT skills shortage continues to be spoken about and now the pioneers of computing are being lost through retirement. A minor political storm has broken out over the intention of the government to ease work permit restrictions so as to allow IT practitioners from overseas to work in Britain to fill the local skills gap whilst at the same time a new tax regime (IR35) is driving some British IT staff to work abroad. (Another new tax measure which requires some share option schemes to treat a rise in value of the shares granted to employees as taxable is causing grief to high value, low revenue IT ventures). Retraining and youth training are seen as major factors in achieving a high level of computer literacy in the UK and to set a good example, the Prime Minister allowed his own need for basic computer skills training to be publicised during 1999. We are not sure how far he has delved into the deep waters of Information and Communications Technology since then, but he has put his name to related initiatives on “worklife balance” and “Telework 2000” as indicated in the quotes which follow. In March 2000, Tony Blair announced “We look forward to working with Employers for Work-Life Balance to promote approaches to work that result in more competitive and profitable businesses and a better quality life for those who work in them.” See details at www.dfee.gov.uk/worklifebalance. In a message of support regarding Telework 2000 (an assembly to be held in London this September) the Prime Minister wrote “I want everybody to be able to communicate with anybody, wherever they might be. I also want information, arguably the world’s most important resource, to be easily accessible for as many people as possible. Knowledge gives us the ability to make informed decisions and fosters democratic debate. I am greatly impressed by the speed with which the technological infrastructure that will allow this to happen is being built.” See more information at www.telework2000.com or www.telework99.dk.
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Information Age Government
