The government is to examine the use of mobile technology to deliver public services, and to encourage greater use of egovernment by citizens.

Despite the government investing heavily in e-enabling its services, the number of people using them is low, Julian Bowrey, head of local egovernment at the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, told an egovernment conference in London last week.

‘We are struggling to realise tangible and quantifiable benefits from what we have invested. Our e-enthusiasts are not using egovernment services,’ he said.

‘We have a big population who are online. However, once we surf we go shopping, we book our holidays, but compared to other nations there are not many of us who use egovernment. We all say we’re willing, but for some reason we don’t do it.’

John Blundell, the Cabinet Office’s director of services for local government, told delegates that online government services have so far been designed for use on computers, but need to be made available through more channels.

‘Until recently, we really didn’t have mobiles in sight, there was no clear idea of the pace of adoption, or the potential uses mobile devices could have, but a lot have emerged in the past year or so that have shown us the way forward,’ he said.

Blundell told the conference that massive change programmes must be implemented and extended in the next 18 months to make sure egovernment services can be accessed from mobile devices.