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National Audit Office Press Notice

Government on the Web II

THIS STATEMENT IS NOT FOR PUBLICATION OR BROADCAST BEFORE 00.01 HOURS ON THURSDAY 25 APRIL 2002

Report by the Comptroller and Auditor General
HC 764 2001-2002
25 April 2002
ISBN: 0102915563
Price: £13.25

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 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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