Government on track to meet e-targets despite bad press, says survey

Over a third of local authorities have said they will have 50-100 per cent of their services online by the end of 2002, ahead of the 2005 deadline for full e-integration, according to a recent survey.

The survey, conducted by Noetica, a Customer Interaction Management company, suggests positive progress is being made towards Prime Minister Tony Blair's target to have all local councils and public services online by 2005, countering a recent National Audit Office report that concluded authorities 'will miss deadlines by a wide margin.'

Keith Symondson, Commercial Director at Noetica, said: "Following the introduction of the 'Implementing e-Government' statements authorities were asked to produce by the end of July 2001, it is encouraging to see that progress is being made, and authorities are planning for change. Although a high percentage of websites do still only provide information services, 20 per cent of local authorities now allow citizens to pay their council tax online."

The survey results also highlighted progress in the creation of a joined-up Government with over two-thirds of local authorities reporting they were working together over the Internet.

Despite the positive signs of advancement, one of the remaining stumbling blocks for full local e-Government is confusion over which services should be provided to the public via the Internet first.

The majority of authorities who took part in the survey admitted they did not know what the most important services they should provide to citizens via the Internet should be.

Local Government websites were shown to be accumulating the necessary criteria to attain 'transactional status', another of the Government's targets, under its e-commerce initiative. Survey results showed improvement on an earlier survey conducted earlier this year by the Society of IT Management which showed the number of Government websites that were 'transactional' accounted for just one per cent.

Mr Symondson added: "Among the many findings unearthed by this survey lies a contradiction which probably stems from the term 'e-government' itself. Its literal meaning relates to electronic Government services, its wider meaning relates to the deployment of better services to citizens. It is important to work with citizens to determine which services are to be made available on Government websites. Online services must be specifically geared towards citizens in order to encourage them to use the Internet as an instrumental point of contact."