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PRIME MINISTER
Report
from the e-Minister and e-Envoy - 3rd
September 2001
Introduction
It is now around one year since we published
our 2000 Annual Report, setting out the government's strategy for
getting the UK online. A detailed progress report on each of the
commitments made in the annual report is, as normal, being published
on our website at www.e-envoy.gov.uk.
This shows that of the 94 commitments announced, 46 are on track,
36 completed, and 12 are behind schedule. This is a substantial
improvement on last month, particularly in respect of those commitments
now completed.
We are now working with colleagues to
update the UK Online action plan. This will enable us to ensure
that the plan continues to meet the needs for achieving our objective
of being at the forefront of the information age revolution. We
will publish this revised plan, and a full assessment of the progress
that has been made since last September, in our Annual Report for
2001 later in the year. Our next report for you will be our Annual
Report for 2001, and therefore we will not be providing you with
a monthly report in October.
Again, we focus on just a few issues
in this monthly report. This report covers the following issues:
local government; the Government Gateway; our proposed policy makers'
guide to e-commerce and legislation; broadband; universal access;
and the voluntary and community sectors.
Local
Government
Work is underway on 25 pathfinder projects - involving more than
100 English local authorities - to develop a range of generic e-models,
which can be scaled and replicated across the wider local government
family. As part of this process, the Department for Transport, Local
Government and the Regions (DTLR) has appointed a private sector
consortium to facilitate dissemination of emerging findings. A website
- www.lgolpathfinder.gov.uk
- has been created, which will form one part of an integrated communication
strategy across different media.
Over 99% of local authorities in England
have now submitted an Implementing Electronic Government (IEG) statement
to DTLR. Analyses of these IEG statements will help to identify
priorities for progress at a local level and will inform development
of DTLR's Local Government Online strategy. A paper will also be
discussed by Ministers during September.
Government
Gateway
August saw the first citizen transaction using the Government Gateway
- Self Assessment. Although this service was already available directly
through the Inland Revenue web site, the move to the Gateway will
allow people to take advantage of other services that we will make
available, all with one password. The Inland Revenue's service uses
web forms to allow people to easily complete their tax return and
it even calculates the tax due or to be refunded, before the form
is sent to the IR and an acknowledgement returned instantly.
A
Policy Makers' Guide to e-Commerce and Legislation
We are continuing to press forward with an effective light touch
framework for e-commerce. Work is already in hand to identify and
remove all remaining regulatory and legal barriers to electronic
ways of working. But there is also a need to adopt a more strategic
approach to policy development across Whitehall, so that the regulatory
objectives of the UK Online Strategy are taken into account early
in the policy process. It is important that when policymakers consider
how they can achieve their policy objectives, they take account
of the impact their legislative proposals may have on e-commerce.
The Office of the e-Envoy is leading a cross Government project
to develop a policy makers' guide to e-commerce and legislation.
The idea is to set out principles for policy makers to ensure that
new and amended legislation/regulations do not damage or unduly
burden the e-commerce industry. We plan to publicise these principles
in the UK Online Annual Report.
Broadband
Whilst business and residential take-up remains relatively low,
there have been some encouraging signs from the market this month.
NTL/Telewest recently launched a high profile 'Building Broadband
Britain' joint advertising campaign to promote the benefits of broadband
to consumers. And broadband announcements from BT in the month included:
the roll out of broadband satellite services to the Highlands and
Islands and to Northern Ireland; plans to launch a self-install
ADSL service to reduce the costs to consumers of installation (currently
£150); and the introduction of new technology to increase
the reach and availability of ADSL services.
On 23 August, Oftel intervened to determine
the service levels that BT must offer to other operators wanting
to unbundle BT local loops and the compensation BT must pay if it
fails to meet these levels. For example, Oftel has proposed that
BT must pay operators £10 for each working day an unbundled
loop is unavailable and £80 per operator for each working
day's delay in providing co-location facilities.
For our part, both strands of the recently
commissioned broadband consultancy work (on aggregating public sector
demand and on benchmarking progress) are on track to report by the
end of September. And members of the Broadband Stakeholder Group,
from the private and the public sectors, are currently working hard
to ensure that they can present us with their initial recommendations
by the end of next month.
Universal
Access
To gain a richer understanding of the drivers and barriers to Internet
use, we are currently commissioning new qualitative research amongst
non-users and those who have only recently started to use it. The
report of this work is due by the end of September, and we intend
to use its findings to review policies that support our goal of
universal access.
Voluntary
and Community Sectors
We are moving forward with work to investigate the information and
communication technology (ICT) needs of the voluntary and community
sectors in England. As a first step, this month we are conducting
a wide-ranging survey of the sectors, in conjunction with the Active
Communities Unit and the Department for Education and Skills. Improving
the sectors' use of ICT would not only improve their productivity
but would also assist their ability to deliver government and other
services to their clients. The survey will be of use to a range
of departments and agencies dealing with the sectors as well as
to the sectors themselves in managing and planning their ICT needs.
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Patricia Hewitt
e-Minister
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Andrew Pinder
Acting e-Envoy
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