Six councils still not ready to join Government Connect network

Unnamed authorities dash government hopes to have all councils hooked up by end of September

The network allows councils to connect to the DWP securely

Six local councils have still not connected to a government network that will allow them to share information securely with Whitehall, despite being given a six month extension.

The Government Connect programme aims to extend the Whitehall secure communications architecture to local authorities so they can exchange information with the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP).

The DWP won't reveal which six councils are the laggards.

Only 210 out of the 375 councils in England and Wales met the original 31 March deadline to comply with the code of connection, which required them to upgrade systems in order to be able to connect.

The rest were given a six-month extension until 30 September.

Many councils felt the timetable had been forced on them and they had insufficient time to update systems.

The DWP told them they would not be able to connect to its systems if they did not comply and put aside a £1.5m pot to help authorities that were having problems.

In March, programme director Philip Littleavon told the Mobile Government conference in London: "I stand here today with as much certainty as you can have in the world and say that Government Connect will be available throughout all of local government by September."

Littleavon will be frustrated that six councils are still not connected. He was unavailable for comment but the DWP said in a statement: "369 of 375 councils have connected and we have firm commitments from the others to connect without undue delay."

The statement added that the achievement supports the transformation of housing benefits and has real potential to improve service delivery in areas such as Youth Offending, Trading Standards, Social Services and Registrar services.