Broken sites hit grand vision

Any talk of technology sweeping away inefficient, citizen-unfriendly government services looks like the ravings of a mad person, following the revelation that 72 per cent of local authority web sites do not meet industry standards of availability.

The message from the Cabinet Office is that egovernment is moving into its second phase. The original 2005 target for all government services to be available online has been met, now the focus is on the Transformational Government (TG) strategy. TG starts from the point that services are available online and emphasises a shift from simple availability to a recasting of service delivery as a whole to suit the needs of the citizen.

It is a more sophisticated approach and there are many significant challenges. But when nearly three-quarters of council web sites do not meet basic levels of availability, that makes a mockery of such a vision.

It would be different if the problems of delivering transactional services were proving insurmountable with current technology.

Or if the complex business process re-engineering required to add an online channel to service delivery were proving difficult to work through.

Or even if there were insufficient funds to rise to the significant challenge of electronic government.

But keeping a web site up and running should not be rocket science.

There are two dangers. First, without a basic level of reliability, more complex citizen-centric schemes are simply castles in the air. Second is the negative impact on the progress and take-up of electronic services as a whole. Many people are initially sceptical about egovernment and an unavailable council web site merely confirms such expectations and makes the public reluctant to try again.

Computing wholeheartedly supports the ambitious use of technology to re-shape public services in the interests of citizens. The poor performance of council web sites needs urgent attention.

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