Central government services most difficult to access, says poll

Worse than technical support centres, says public

Central government services came bottom of a poll comparing ease of online access

Central Government ranked bottom in a poll among UK citizens comparing ease of access to services provided by public-facing organisations.

The majority of respondents were also in favour of government spending more money on IT to make access to services easier, the poll found.

The 1975 respondents, representing a cross-section of society, rated central government services even more difficult to access than those provided by technical support centres.

Asked to rate 11 different types of organisations by ease of access to services, respondents ranked them as follows:

1. Banks
2. High street retailers
3. Online retailers
4. Hospitals
5. Local councils
6. Utilities (gas, electricity)
7. Telephone companies
8. Broadband providers
9. Insurance companies
10. Technical support services
11. Central government services

Over three-quarters (77 per cent) of respondents said they approve of government investment in IT to improve access to services, with approval marginally higher among the 55+ age group.

Asked what would most improve access to public services, 53 per cent were in favour of one memorable number for contact with all government services; 24 per cent were in favour of their own web page for accessing services, and among the 18-34 age group, 26 per cent favoured the use of mobile web applications.

One in ten (10 per cent) believe that central government services have become more efficient in the past five years; 29 per cent believe they have become less efficient.

The survey was conducted in April by Vision Critical, part of Angus Reid Public Opinion, for Lagan Technologies, a company that sells government-to-citizen systems.