UK e-gov take up
The UK is bottom of the EU league table for e-government take up accroding to a recent report by Eurostat (via e-gov monitor; full text via Eurostat):
Less than a third of businesses in the UK used basic eGovernment services compared to the European average of 45 per cent and 90 per cent in Sweden… Survey findings released by Eurostat show 31 per cent of UK companies used online government services to obtain information during the first quarter of 2004… 27 per cent downloaded forms from government websites against an average figure of 41 per cent for the EU25 and 84 per cent in Finland. The UK also came joint bottom with Cyprus in the EU Member States in terms of businesses using government services to send online forms, reported to be just 11 per cent, compared with the average of 29 per cent. Take-up in this area was highest in Poland at 68 per cent, followed by Finland at 61 per cent.
Similar figures for e-Government take-up by citizens were, in a sense, relatively better compared to the EU norm. A fifth of UK citizens were reported to have obtained government information online (EU average 22 per cent), seven per cent had downloaded forms from government websites (EU average 10 per cent) and just three per cent had used online forms (EU average seven per cent).
It’s a poor record, particularly given that the UK tops the IT spending league table in Europe (report only available at huge cost from Kable, but this snippet from electric news):
The UK is spending more on public sector ICT than any other European country, according to a new survey by market analyst firm Kable. ICT expenditure across Europe is set for slow but steady growth over the next two years, according to the report, titled “ICT Spend in the European Public Sector.” Total spending this year will amount to EUR87 billion, reaching EUR94 billion by 2007. The UK accounts for an estimated 23 percent of the total for this year, or EUR21 billion, a figure that is 40 percent higher than the amounts spent by Germany or France. The UK spending is largely being driven by major investments in e-government and back office infrastructure, says Kable, and includes major IT projects like the Connecting for Health initiative, the Criminal Justice IT programme and the Defence Information Infrastructure.
Obviously the figures are not fully comparable, being in absolute rather than per capita amounts, but it seems clear that the UK isn’t getting the return it ought to. Given this, it is no surprise that on-the-record explanations are starting to emerge. Last week, an ODPM official argued that the UK struggles with e-gov ignorance (story via FCW):
Setting up government Web sites for citizen transactions does little good unless the public uses them, a U.K. e-government official said today. Almost all of the UK’s 400 local governments will provide electronic services by the end of this year, said Julian Bowrey, divisional and programme manager of local e-government in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. Bowrey was a panel member at FCW Events’ Web-Enabled Government Conference in Washington, D.C. Although a digital divide exists between those who have access to computers and those who do not, e-government usage is low even among those who have access. “The first thing we do when we get access to a computer is go shopping,” Bowrey said. “Very few of us do e-government.”
Given his responsibility for local, rather than national, e-government, his proposed solution was, perhaps, to be expected, but interesting nonetheless:
To increase usage, the central government’s Web portal should link to local government Web sites, Bowrey said. The U.K. equivalent of FirstGov.gov is Directgov, but its content is mainly limited to policy statements, he added. Users searching for information on special education in schools, for example, would be more interested in information about local schools and how to contact local officials, Bowrey said.
In short, devolve down to the local level and bring a government (i.e. a political) dimension back in:
A U.K. marketing campaign should target two segments of the populace most likely to start using e-services, Bowrey said. One is “grumpy young men who want to pay their parking fines online and want to complain, preferably at 3 in the morning,” he said. The other is women with an interest in local community services, he added.
The United Kingdom also must overcome the public perception that local authorities are unresponsive and accessible only during banker’s hours, he said. The “view among some people is ‘Well, local government just doesn’t do this stuff. It’s all 19th century,’” he said.
But, he also conceded that building e-government is, in itself, not enough:
Surveys show that interest in e-government is far higher than actual usage. More people don’t use available services “because they’re not aware of them,” Bowrey said.
However, it might also help if some of the basics were done properly — and this applies to local government as much (perhaps even more than) central government. Central amongst these is surely accessibility and here the record is often poor. Indeed, a recent report found that 85 per cent of London borough web sites were yet to achieve web accessibility.
It has also been suggested that services need to be made more user friendly too. Nigel Dunn, Vice President of Genesys Conferencing, has argued this can be done through giving e-government a clearer visual identity; some of this is, no doubt, a plug for his products, but worthy of some attention perhaps (via Publictechnology.net)
His argument is simple but compelling - putting a human face to an e-government service will in crease take-up. Though it may sounds like a sales pitch for video-conferencing, the message is an important one to heed for e-government service marketing. The public have greater trust and usage of a service if there’s a face attached to its marketing and communication - so videoconferencing or avatars could make a real difference if embedded in the front end of an e-gov service.
It might help too if the Prime Minister himself had a stronger understanding of what’s going on in the field; his shameful ignorance was exposed in a recent House of Commons session:
Q88 Mr Allan: You have something of a reputation of being a technophobe on a personal level, is that fair?
Mr Blair: I am afraid that is fair actually, yes.
Q89 Mr Allan: It is. Have you ever visited the multi-million pound central government website that you have set up to get us all to use these new electronic government facilities?
Mr Blair: I think that is a very unfair question. The answer is no.
Q90 Mr Allan: Do you know the address of this multi-million pound project?
Mr Blair: No.
Mr Allan: Your head of e.government, Ian Watmore, would be able to tell you all about it.
Mr Blair: That is exactly why delegation is such an important part of the job of a prime minister.
Oh dear…
