Press Release - Government on the Web II
25 April 2002
Presenting the report to Parliament Sir John Bourn, the head of
the NAO, recognised the effort and resources being put into
boosting central government presence on-line and in promoting
e-government among local authorities. The Office of the e-Envoy has
given a clear cultural lead from the centre to departments
developing e-business initiatives. But to maximise the potential
benefits from these resources (244 staff and £52 million annual
expenditure), the Office needs to move beyond campaigning for
e-government towards a service delivery style with emphasis on
implementation.
Government has set the target that 100 per cent of services
should be available on-line by 2005. Progress has been made in
developing Web sites and in encouraging the development of
e-services across government. The report found that the number of
organisations with a web site has increased but 66 out of 376
central government organisations were still without a web site
(Those organisations without a site at the time of the census are
chiefly small government bodies which have few if any dealings
either with citizens at large or with firms and enterprises,
normally because they are units which provide a specialist service
within government itself). All the major Cabinet departments have
well-developed Web sites.
But there are real issues still to be addressed. There is still
no methodology for establishing the financial costs and benefits of
on-line services. There is no central collection of data on web
site usage. Such data would provide valuable information about what
works – and what doesn’t work – for citizens using on-line
government services. And government needs to place maximisation of
take-up of electronic services at the heart of the e-government
agenda.
The proportion of agencies allowing users to fill-in and submit
forms on line has improved from one in seven to one in four.
However, the usefulness of most search engines on government sites
is low, and most information is not tailored to user needs; for
example, only one site in 16 presented relevant information in
response to users’ inputting a postcode. The UK Online site
represents some progress towards a central government portal for
the UK but the site’s design has been problematic and usage numbers
have been lower than expected. A ‘rebuild’ of the UK Online site
was launched in late January 2002, with a better-designed and more
useful homepage and an improved search engine which delivers more
intuitive results.
The report includes in depth case studies of two major
departments - HM Customs and Excise and the Department for
Transport, Local Government and the Regions and a census of central
government web sites and of all local authority sites.
On specific departmental sites the report concludes that the
Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions has some
way to go to develop its web site to its full potential especially
in presenting information more interactively. The Department should
strengthen its information base about the development of local
government on the Web and of local electronic services and develop
a more meaningful set of indicators to measure usage and take up of
services.
It also says that HM Customs and Excise should continue to
develop its recently modernised web site. Good information services
and analysis of users’ existing Web behaviours will need to form an
integral part of the departments e-business plans if it is to
successfully develop electronic services. The department has
introduced a risk management regime in recognition of the scale and
significance of its e-business programme and should continue its
approach to handling e-business development in stages.
The Office of the E Envoy should review its target regime to
include specific requirements for departments and agencies to grow
their web site usage and take-up of electronic services and put in
place an information base to identify the value added by
e-government projects.
Sir John Bourn said today:
"A significant amount of taxpayers’ money is being spent
in central and local government in introducing Internet-based
services. I have found considerable progress since my previous
report in 1999 but weaknesses in information across government on
the usage of its web sites, performance indicators to measure
progress and methodologies to assess the value added by
e-government provision."
Notes for Editors
- This report examines progress in implementing electronic public
services delivery via the Internet within UK central government
over the last two years, since the NAO previous report Government
on the Web (HC 87, 1999-2000). The report was contracted out to a
team led by Professor Patrick Dunleavy from the London School of
Economics and Political Science and Professor Helen Margetts from
University College London.
- The Office of the e-Envoy in the Cabinet Office headed by the
e-Envoy, Andrew Pinder, is responsible for taking forward the
government’s wider drive to ‘get Britain on-line’. The Office of
the e-Envoy’s objectives include to ensure that everyone who wants
it has access to the Internet by 2005 and to achieve the target for
electronic service delivery, by making all government services
available on line by 2005.
- Press notices and reports are available from the date of
publication on the NAO website at http://www.nao.org.uk/ Hard copies can
be obtained from The Stationery Office on 0845 702 3474.
- Hard copies can be obtained from the Stationary Office on 0845
702 3474.The Comptroller and Auditor General, Sir John Bourn, is
the head of the National Audit Office employing some 750 staff. He
and the NAO are totally independent of Government. He certifies the
accounts of all Government departments and a wide range of other
public sector bodies; and he has statutory authority to report to
Parliament on the economy, efficiency and effectiveness with which
departments and other bodies have used their resources.
Press Notice 37/02
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