What's the e-Envoy got to do with IT?

Full of good ideas and tall promises at their grandiose introductions, our appointed e-leaders pledge to fight the good fight to boost UK IT for all. But what have they actually achieved for us?

Last month saw yet another government "e-champion" brought to the fore on a wing and a promise to reform IT growth and support Prime Minister Tony Blair's vision for public service reform.

It was a direct move to "sex up" the role of the e-Envoy, which up until now has been filled by the former-Inland Revenue IT director turned consultant, Andrew Pinder.

This brave new position is to be called the Head of e-Government, the former minister for e-commerce and competitiveness turned cabinet minister, Douglas Alexander, explaining in an official announcement.

And this new government creation will play a pivotal role in supporting the Prime Minister's vision for public service reform, he proclaimed.

It was a move, he said, that heralded the "evolution" of the e-Envoy's role and would build on his achievements of the last four years.

But what exactly did we get from Mr Pinder and his £127,432 salary, over the last four years?

To recap, the e-Envoy's job was to take responsibility for ensuring that all government services are available electronically by 2005 with key services achieving high levels of use.

His team, the Cabinet Office-based "Office of the e-Envoy", was charged with improving the delivery of public services and working to meet Mr Blair's target for internet access for all who want it by 2005.

It was also to support work across government to develop the UK as a world leader for electronic business, the management of public sector IT contracts and the wiring of Whitehall.

But it soon became apparent Mr Pinder and Mr Blair did not good bedfellows make when a public rebuke of the PM's e-targets stunned a meeting of global IT leaders.

The e-Envoy called the Prime Minister's targets for a full electronic service by 2005 "unhelpful" in a speech to Microsoft's 2001 Digital Britain Summit, only months after being appointed to the position.

He told delegates: "I know the government will not appreciate me for saying this but there have been some unhelpful targets set, particularly the main one of full electronic service by 2005.

"I would be more than happy if, by the target date, we could have the main government services online with full citizen participation," he said.

It was a brave public move. Perhaps this character was a break from the "yes" men who had preceded him, IT analysts pondered.

But held up against the cold light of day, even Mr Pinder's toned-down pledges have fallen rather short of the mark, while what was once years before the PM expected his deadline to be met by has now become a matter of mere months.

One year after the e-Envoy's speech to those industry leaders, public sector websites were given the thumbs down with a "could do better" message from an independent survey into 20 of the government's flagship online projects.

The damning report concluded that the government should pause the web aspect of its £5bn programme to put right what it had already done, rather than ploughing ahead, trying to cover more bases to meet targets.

"The government has repeatedly stated its objective of having all its services online by 2005, but this 200-page report shows that half-way through that programme, there are worrying signs that the web aspect of it is in trouble," it said.

As for "full citizen participation", a report released just last November warned the digital divide is still not only a gulf, but shows no signs of being bridged... And this, three years after Mr Pinder's original attempt to curb "unhelpful" targets.

"Those people who need the web most are still struggling to have a connection at home, and government websites are also failing them," the report said.

The crux of the problem, it warned is internet access begins at home only for the well-paid, with just 20 percent of married couples with an income of below £10,444 having home access.

"The government's drive to get all public services online by 2005 is laudable, but the evidence in this research is that local, regional and national government websites are among the least useful to socially excluded people who should be a core audience," Val Shawcross, London's own e-envoy, warned as the report was published.

Experts speculated in 2001 the collective tasks expected of the e-Envoy represented a nigh-on impossible job. The success stories have been few, but do credit the Office with the acceleration of broadband roll-out after many months of stop-start local loop un-bundling and snail-paced roll-out in regions.

What will surely follow with the creation of this new Head of e-Government - who has yet to be publicly named - is a huge clean-up operation at massive cost to the taxpayer.

As the position's key objective remains the delivering the existing Cabinet Office electronic services by 2005, it will certainly be an interesting show to see how all the necessary pieces will be put into place by the end of the year.