Public services to be accessed via mobiles

The public will be able to access government services using popular technology such as text messages, email and web chat within two years.

In an exclusive interview with Computing, Alan Mather, chief executive of the Office of the eEnvoy's e-delivery team (EDT), outlined plans to introduce a common technology infrastructure to help government departments provide services online by 2005.

The EDT is developing software which will provide electronic alerts to the public for events, such as flood warnings, changes to hospital appointments, or court appearances.

For example, householders could subscribe to the flood warning system by providing their postcode, and choose how they want the message delivered.

Mather says the benefit of the XML-based software is that different departments only need to connect to one central system to send information in several ways such as email, text or internet chat.

The flood warning service is already being tested and could be in place in 12 months.

Further developments, due to be available in 2004, will allow citizens to electronically set up, change and cancel appointments for services, such as driving tests or hospital visits.

If a doctor was unable to keep an appointment, the EDT's software could notify the patient by text message and reschedule it.

But the key to making the technology work is integration with the back end systems of the various departments, says Mather. For example, online patient booking will be introduced in partnership with the NHS.

The software components for the services will be ready in 2004, but adoption will depend on rollout to the departments, says Mather.

'Some departments will do it quicker than others,' he said.