Government on target for an online 2005

In March 1999, the UK Government published a White Paper called Modernising Government revealing its aim to put all its services online by 2008.

A year later, Prime Minister Tony Blair brought the target date forward to 2005. The scheme will allow dealings with government departments to be carried out online, with services available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For businesses, the initiative is important because it provides new ways of accessing government services and information, and will alter the way that firms tender for government contracts.

An e-envoy was appointed in September 1999 to oversee the development of ecommerce in the UK and to co-ordinate the implementation of electronic government.

As well as putting all government services online by 2005, there are two further aims: for the government to purchase 90 per cent (by volume) of low-value goods and services electronically by March 2001; and for 100 per cent of civil central government procurement to be tendered electronically by 2002.

Information sources

Each government department was asked to produce a strategy document outlining how it plans to bring government online. The first set of strategies was published in December 2000 and the next will be published this autumn.

The Government's Govtalk website is designed to support consultations between the public sector and industry to develop and agree policies and standards for online government.

Blair wants electronic service delivery to support 'joined-up government'. In practice, this means that people will have several channels for dealing with government departments. For example, they will be able to renew their car tax from a number of places, including the AA website, not just the Department of Transport, and Local Government and the Regions websites.

An important part of the Government's strategy is its Gateway website where it is intended that users will be able to sign up for any of the Government's services that are available over the internet.

Those who register will be able to use a single user ID or digital certificate to send and receive forms, such as tax and VAT returns. The Gateway went live for registration on 25 January 2001 and began supporting transactions in March. It is planned to support more transactions by the end of the year and is currently on track to meet its targets.

Another site is the Government's UKonline portal, which went live in December 2000. This portal gives access to over 1000 government websites, and organises key services in terms of 'life episodes', such as having a baby, rather than bureaucratic organisation.

Clearly, a lot has been done in laying the groundwork for online government. But how much has been achieved, and what is the likelihood of the Government meeting its ambitious 2005 target?

The e-envoy's progress report for August 2001 states that: "Of the 94 commitments ... 58 are on track, 22 completed, and 14 are behind schedule." A large amount of information is now available online, including Hansard parliamentary records, Ofsted reports, the databases of the Office of National Statistics, the Land Registry and Companies House, and government Green and White Papers.

Using the services already online, people can respond to consultation documents, order information from Companies House, and apply for retirement pension forecasts. Some departments are doing better than others. One of the most successful has been the Department for Education and Skills, which has put 60 per cent of services online and believes it will have achieved 90 per cent by the end of 2002.

Some services, such as the NHS Direct website, and the Parents' website, which provides information on schools, are genuinely useful. Other services hardly seem worth the effort. For example, it is currently possible to fill in a passport application form online and email it, but it will then be printed out and sent back for signature.

And despite the best intentions, there are areas where joined-up government does not seem to have been put into place at all. The departmental websites have a wide variety of designs: there is not, for example, a single consistent way of carrying out a search.

By 2005, online services should include forms for student support, car tax forms, driving test applications, online patent filing, and benefits applications and payments. GPs will be able to book hospital appointments online while patients are present.

Support for transactions is relatively difficult to provide online and, so far, little has been achieved. Currently only four types of transaction can be carried out online: individuals can submit self-assessment tax forms; firms can submit VAT returns; employers can send and receive PAYE forms and returns; and farmers can apply for area aid.

By the end of August, 23,085 self-assessment tax returns had been submitted electronically, a figure described by an Inland Revenue spokesperson as "well up to expectations".

Currently, it is not possible to make payments online, but a consultation document will be published in December 2001 on the use of smart cards for online payments.

The Government aims to support more online transactions with businesses. In April 2000, the Office of Government Commerce site was launched to lead the drive to full electronic trading between government and its suppliers.

In August the e-envoy said that approximately half of the Government's low-value transactions were conducted electronically - some way off the 90 per cent target. Ten government departments are currently taking part in a pilot project to support electronic tendering for procurement. Some parts of government already use online purchasing systems.

For example, the NHS uses a purchasing and requisition system known as SupplyStream, which is integrated with its finance systems, while the Northern Ireland Government Purchasing Agency operates a fully electronic requisitioning and ordering system.

Access technologies

Local government also has to put services online by 2005. What this means in practice is unclear, however. Instead of setting out specific services that must be online - such as the ability to pay council tax - the Government asked councils to prepare Implementing Electronic Government statements by the end of July this year, outlining their intentions. The plans are not available for public scrutiny.

Some idea of the plans of local government can be found in a document published by the Local Government Authority in February, entitled E-Government: Delivering Local Government Online. It says that councils should provide free internet access and email to all citizens at their local libraries; that council services should be available outside working hours; and that services should be provided via PC, digital TV and mobile phone formats, where appropriate.

The Government has set aside £350m to help councils meet the 2005 target. Of this, £25m has been used to fund pathfinder projects. A total of 25 councils have been designated as pathfinders and have been asked to work on initiatives to bring electronic government to local people.

Among the projects are schemes to use digital television for interactive services - for example, to allow online reporting of faulty street lamps - and to provide smart cards for use as public transport passes and to pay for school meals.

The Government has also set up a website called Info4local to provide a gateway to help local authorities access central government information.

Although there has been progress in putting services online, the Government has to tackle another problem: getting people to use these services. Many people who would benefit from online services do not have internet access at home. Free internet access from libraries, which will be available by the end of 2002, will go part of the way to solving this problem, but the Government is also talking to commercial providers such as BT about making access to government services available through internet kiosks.

A vast amount of government information has become available online in the last two years. The Government's own international benchmarking shows it is doing well compared with other G7 countries and it still has another three years to meet its targets.

SUMMARY:

• The Government aims to make all its services available online by 2005.
• Government information, tax services, tendering and procurement will be supported online.
• Information already available online includes parliamentary records, Ofsted reports, the databases of the Office of National Statistics and Green and White Papers.
• The Government's Gateway site will provide a one-stop shop that allows access to its back-end systems.
• The Govtalk site supports consultation between the public sector and industry to develop policies and standards for online government.
• A lot of government purchasing is already carried out online, and the proportion is set to grow.