The UK ranks fifth place in Europe for sophistication and availability of online government services, according to the annual e-government benchmark study by Capgemini.

The survey assesses the online capabilities of more than 5,000 public agencies in 31 countries across Europe. Austria performed the best, followed by Malta, Slovenia and Portugal. The UK has improved slightly from its performance last year, when it came sixth.

The area where the UK performed particularly well was in the delivery of sophisticated online services for all users. Capgemini said that the online services available for individuals in the UK were almost as well-developed as those aimed at businesses. Across all countries, the average consumer online service in Europe was classed as 20 percent less advanced than the average online business service.

Graham Colclough, vice president of the Global Public Sector division at Capgemini, said, “Public services are thinking about the customer and thinking about what it means to work together.”

Factors for the UK’s high achievement in providing accessible services included the level to which shared services had been developed; the focus the government had given to tackling the digital divide; and the establishment of multi-channel access to services, according to the report. Four of the nine “pro-active” services in the UK also attained a 100 percent score, which also helped to improve the rating. Pro-active services are those which automatically pre-populate certain data fields.

The UK portals to public services information, Directgov and Business Link, were also held up as best practices in Europe for personalised services and accelerating them towards web 2.0 standards.

A reason for the UK’s achievement in this area could be because of the good relationship government agencies have now established with the private sector firms supplying e-government systems. The public sector held an assumption five years ago that the commercial world would come in and steal money from them if they were contracted to build e-government systems, said Colcough. Now, there is a more mature relationship, with a lot more communication between the two sectors and the voluntary sector, he added.

Central government has the highest spending on online services per capita in Europe and the UK is now beginning to see a return on the investment, Colcough said. Local government started its transformation journey later but there are pockets of excellence which are having a snowball effect, he added

When asked why the UK had not risen higher in the ranks, Colclough said that the UK has performed particularly well considering its large size. Size is a barrier to implementing online services and a smaller country will be able to deploy online services easier, he added.

Gillian Merron, minister for Transformational Government said, “I am delighted that the hard work we have been doing in this area has made a positive impact on people’s lives. However, there is still more to do to address the challenges citizens and businesses face. We need to continue this drive to ensure services are joined up to improve the experience of the customer.”

A particular area the UK needs to concentrate on to improve online government services is data management where cultural acceptance among British people is proving difficult, Colcough said.

Strong leadership, commitment and evaluation is what is needed for countries to progress in online services delivery. This is the main reason for Austria doing so well and Portugal’s huge improvement from last year, Colclough added.