Debate in Westminster Hall, October 13 2005
Background to the debate
The e-government unit is the largest unit in the Cabinet Office, headed by Ian Watmore. Its mission is to “ensure that IT supports the business transformation of Government itself so that we can provide better, more efficient, public services, ” the Prime Minister, Tony Blair. Its aim is to ensure the public sector keeps up with the private sector in delivering good, efficient services driven by information technology.
This debate will focus on the Government’s IT strategy and developing e-government. This strategy of transforming the way citizens receive public services and demonstrating how technology can improve the corporate services of government, will mean more resources can be released to deliver ‘frontline’ services.
The Government has set a target of 100% of services to be online by the end of 2005. In February this year, former Local Government Minister Phil Hope announced that local authorities were on target to be 100% e-enabled. Authorities were also expected to deliver £1.2 billion in efficiency savings by 2007/08 as a direct result of e-government investment.
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Stakeholder Responses:
Institution of Electrical Engineers
“In order to increase efficiency and improve customer satisfaction, the public must be able to rely on and trust the electronic systems. Web-based services must be customer focussed, easy to use, fast, reliable, accessible to all, secure and work first time, ” say the IEE.
IEE has called for IT professionals to:
“have skills spanning senior management and IT, structured career development and sufficient status within the civil service in order to have full input in strategy.”
Federation of Small Businesses
“Gershon’s recommendation to move local authority procurement online by the end of 2005 could have serious implications for small businesses that do not have online facilities,” according to the Federation of Small Businesses.
“This is a serious and undesirable outcome of the drive towards e-procurement.”
According to a recent survey, “the take-up of e-commerce amongst FSB members has been low.”
British Computer Society
“Many users of government systems are poor, old, disabled or disadvantaged. Unless innovative access is devised e-government, will continue to be unavailable to them,” according to the British Computer Society.
“All managers must be sufficiently well-informed to manage information and IT projects, rather than leaving this to the IT people.”
eZeSchools Network
In education, “technology utilised properly can improve educational standards, and address behavioural issues. Resources can also be more relevantly distributed,” according to eZeview Technologies.
“Technology enables education to become personalised, students take ownership of their own education and schools can provide resources and support to their local communities.”
“So called `Chalk and talk’ lecturing no longer works in today’s technological society.”
eZeview technologies have developed eZeSchools, “an online learning environment that allows teachers, students and parents to come together as a community, providing the vehicle for young people to become engaged and focused on learning. It also provides teachers with more time to do what they do best – teach.”
The use of `e-learning’ means schools benefit from higher grades and an improved reputation. Parents are able to monitor and be informed so that they can support and motivate their children.
Stakeholder Positions in Full:
Institution of Electrical Engineers
Federation of Small Businesses
British Computer Society
eZeSchools Network
