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PRIME MINISTER Report from the e-Minister and acting e-Envoy - 5th February 2001 Introduction This is our third monthly report on progress against the UK Online strategy, as set out in the UK Online annual report published on 11 September. The strategy details how we are driving forward the programme of change to get individuals, businesses and Government online. As usual, this report is structured around the five key priorities identified in the UK online strategy: modern markets, confident people, successful businesses, getting government online, and world class supply. A more detailed progress report on every one of the commitments in the UK Online annual report is being published on our website at: www.e-envoy.gov.uk. This report shows that of the 94 commitments announced, 84 are on track, 5 completed and 5 are behind schedule. Modern Market Since our last report to you, Oftel has made the following progress in connection with Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) which allows operators other than BT to install equipment in BT exchanges to supply customers with a range of services including voice, fast Internet access, video on demand and interactive TV: On 23 November, Oftel published proposed amendments to the terms and conditions of the contract between operators and BT to supply unbundled local loops. Oftel put forward these proposals because BT and the operators were unable to reach an agreement on what the terms and conditions should be. On 27 November, a determination on the LLU space allocation procedure was published. The allocation procedure determines both the order in which BT prepares exchanges for operators’ equipment and the order in which space is allocated where there is insufficient room for all the operators to install equipment. This procedure was applied to a new round of bids for space from operators on 13 December 2000. From this round of bidding 360 of the most popular sites were selected. On 29 December the final wholesale prices for BT's unbundled local loops were published. Charges have also been fixed by Oftel for the internal tie cables that connect the unbundled loops in BT's exchanges to the operators' own equipment or to the external tie cables, depending on the type of co-location used. At the end of December, Oftel also set out the final arrangements for ensuring shared access to local loops and finalised the relevant pricing principles. Shared access to the local loop allows operators to lease only the higher frequency portion of a loop to provide high-speed data services. This form of unbundling enables a consumer to keep BT (or Kingston) for voice services and use a competing operator for high bandwidth services, without having to get an additional line. BT and Kingston are required to offer shared access from the beginning of 2001. Prices for shared access to BT's local loop will be determined by Oftel early next year. In early January BT presented operators with the first detailed plans for making space available in 25 local exchanges taken from the first sites selected in September 2000. Orders were only placed at a total of 14 exchanges with 7 operators involved. Oftel called a meeting of the operators on 18 January to discuss this disappointing response and it was agreed to bring forward the preparation of the most popular exchanges, from the December round of bidding. Construction of co-location facilities in the most popular exchanges should begin before Easter. In early January BT handed over facilities at four trial exchanges enabling the first services over unbundled loops to be provided by other operators. Other work conducted by Oftel On 24 November, the draft Direction to require BT to provide other operators with unmetered Internet access over its network was published. The draft Direction sets out the legal framework that will bring into force proposals announced by Oftel on 13 November to increase the availability of unmetered Internet access for consumers. On 27 November, Oftel confirmed that it has launched an investigation into the pricing of BT's proposed BT Surf Together and BT Talk and Surf Together packages under the Competition Act 1998. Confident People On 24 November, David Blunkett announced £75,000 in further funding to help the Community Education Development Centre (CEDC) expan d the Community Schools Network. This additional funding will go towards development of an interactive website for the sharing of information and ideas across the Network. On 10 January Michael Wills announced a capital funding boost of £400 million for new technology in schools as new research showed a direct link between good computer facilities and standards. The funding allocation for 2001-2004 across England is part of the Government's £1 billion investment for ICT (information and communications technology) in schools. The funding will ensure that schools can buy and increase their stock of ICT equipment and spread internet access inside schools. The funding was announced as the British Educational and Communications Technology Agency (BECTa) published a report (Schools of the Future - Achieving Today) which demonstrated a direct link between good ICT facilities and standards at Key Stage 2. The report shows that at Key Stage 2 there is a consistent trend for pupils in schools with better ICT resources to achieve better grades for English, maths and science. It also indicates that schools that use ICT to support a particular subject, tend to achieve better in that subject than schools which do not use ICT. Schools are making good progress towards the challenging National Grid for Learning targets set for 2002. Currently: -almost nine out of ten schools are connected to the internet, compared to just over one in ten in 1996; -computer-to-pupil ratios have improved from 1:17.6 in 1998 to 1:12.6 in primary schools, and from 1:8.7 to 1:7.9 in secondary schools; -expenditure on ICT by primary schools has risen from an average of £3,600 in 1998 to £8,300. In secondary schools the increase is from £40,100 to £50,100. Successful Businesses The UK scored highly in the annual pan-European benchmark on funding, people and the business environment , published on 24 January. The report, “Not just peanuts”, based on research conducted by Arthur Andersen and Growth Plus, identified the UK as being “the country that overall provides the most entrepreneur friendly environment, thereby fostering growth companies most effectively.” The report ranked the UK, eight other European countries and the United States according to twenty measures covering funding, people and the business environment. Further analysis of the individual measures will enable us to identify thespecific areas where the UK’s performance was perceived as less strong. The full report is available at www.notjustpeanuts.com According to a Datamonitor survey of e-commerce food retailing published on 1 February, the internet accounts for 0.4% of food grocery sales – a higher proportion than in any other country - and with the UK having five of the world ’s top fifteen online grocers. According to a report by TNS Harris, a London-based market research group, on behalf of UPS (the parcels company), based on a poll conducted at the end of 2000, UK companies are seen by the rest of Europe to be well out in front in defining the e-revolution. The full series of surveys will be available later this month. Government
figures released on 21 November highlighted differences within and
between regions on business start-ups and e-commerce capability.
Stephen Byers announced that encouraging regional enterprise and
preventing the emergence of a 'digital divide' between business in different
parts of the UK must be a top policy priority. Stephen noted that
the Government has previously announced the recruitment of 100 extra
advisors to help businesses across the country get on-line, and
the establishment of 'internet incubator' projects in a number of
regions which will provide new On 14 December, Patricia welcomed the publication of the Better Regulations Task Force's report on e-commerce. The report, 'Regulating Cyberspace', was undertaken by the Task Force to examine to what extent regulatory barriers were preventing UK businesses and consumers from engaging in e-commerce. The Government’s response will be published shortly. Getting Government online The Electronic Service Delivery Report for Autumn 2000 was published on 16 January. This was the fourth six-monthly report that examines electronic service delivery and the second based on monitoring the number of services that are enabled for electronic transactions. The report shows that for the whole of central Government, 42% of services are available online now, well in excess of the interim target that 25% of services should be online by 2002. The report further revealed that 73% of Government services are expected to be available online by 2002, and over 99% by 2005. On 29 December Ian McCartney welcomed a progress report from Andrew that shows that two-thirds of the recommendations from the Successful IT: Modernising Government in Action report, published in May, have been met. Ian revealed significant strides were being made to improve handling of major Government IT projects. The remaining recommendations, and work on measuring improvements and embedding cultural change within Department's, Agencies and NDPBs is being taken forward in the Successful Projects in IT Environment (SPRITE) Programme. conference of e-Communicators on 1st February brought together for the first time ministers, senior civil servants and those with frontline responsibility for producing and designing around 1,000 government websites. As part of the drive to ensure a world-class government Internet presence, Lucian Hudson, Director of e-Communications, Cabinet Office, organised the event. During the conference mention was made of the launch of a number of website initiatives – the guidelines for government websites, the development of the Gateway and the forthcoming launch of ukonline.gov.uk on 19 February. A forum for career development for e-communicators has been set up by Lucian Hudson, Director of e-Communications, Cabinet Office, Mike Granatt, Head of Profession, GICS, and Sue Jenkins, Director of GICS Development Centre, Cabinet Office. The GICS e-communicators sub-group will draw together across Whitehall key people who will help promote best practice and develop the professional community. It will help address the skill shortage on website management by creating a career path and training structure for web managers that will also further the convergence of skills from different areas. It will also co-operate and work with other government initiatives in raising general levels of awareness and skills throughout government in order to improve communications online. ukonline.gov.uk Citizen Portal ukonline.gov.uk citizen portal (www.ukonline.gov.uk), went live on 4 December as a test site. Despite the deliberate lack of publicity surrounding the test release the portal has proved extremely popular, receiving nearly one and a quarter million hits on its home page in December. The volume of users who sought out the portal demonstrates the huge interest in and demand for government information online. The portal has also been praised in the press – on 16 January the Belfast Telegraph described it as "a clever new development... only now beginning to attract the attention it deserves". The portal is due to be launched formally in mid February. Feedback from users has been used to improve the existing content and the site will benefit from a redesigned front page and much-improved search facilities. There will also be two new life episodes – Death and Bereavement, and Learning to Drive. At present, the Citizen Portal offers a structured way of accessing Government information available online. Once the Government Gateway is in place in Spring 2001, it will become possible to carry out online transactions, such as submitting a tax return electronically. Government Gateway The Government Gateway went live for Registration and Enrolment on the
25th January on time and on budget, with the first transactions
expected in Spring. This is a World First; the first time anyone
in the private or public sector has developed a secure system for
signing XML documents over the Internet.
The Gateway is the ‘middleware’, or
the tier that enables Government to join up in a coherent way.
This is a self-contained and sophisticated piece of secure infrastructure
with intelligent routing and authentication software. It enables
different parts of central Government, devolved administrations
and local authorities to conduct authenticated transactions with
citizens and businesses. The Gateway will make it much easier
and more efficient for citizens and businesses to use online public
services by acting as the single authentication service for e-Government.
For example, once a user has successfully registered, they will
be able to access services from different Departments using the
same registration. The Gateway will also allow different legacy
systems in different government departments to communicate with
each other, allowing true joined-up transactions for the first time. Other Government Developments Other recent Government developments include the following: The Rural Portal was the focus of a display on the MAFF stand at the Royal Smithfield Show. The aim of the portal, which is part of the Agriculture Strategy, is to bring together within a single framework the information flowing from MAFF, other government departments and agencies with the market-driven information Kim Howells launched a new Intellectual Property (IP) web site on 29 November. The site provides a comprehensive resource for businesses and inventors, with information on copyrights, trade marks, patents and designs. On 1 December Lord Hunt announced the shortlist for the electronic transmission of prescription pilots. The electronic transfer of prescriptions (ETP) between GPs, community pharmacies and the Prescription Pricing Authority is one of the key elements of Pharmacy in the Future, the programme for pharmacy announced by Lord Hunt earlier this year. The programme pledged that by 2004 electronic prescriptions will be introduced, with GPs e-mailing prescriptions directly to the pharmacist. Significant benefits for patients are expected, including fewer trips to the GP surgery to collect repeat prescriptions, and an end to illegible and incomplete prescriptions. Senior partners in Preston law firms were invited to Preston Combined Court Centre on 14 December to discuss how they can participate in a new e-Court pilot project due to be launched later this year. The six-month pilot, due to start next year, is part of the Court Service's Modernising the Civil Courts Programme. It will allow local solicitors to issue suitable interim applications in civil, family or insolvency cases (eg an application to disclose evidence) by e-mail. A District Judge will then be able to consider the application on-screen and where possible resolve the application without the need for a court hearing.On 10 January, the Inland Revenue announced that Self-assessment (SA) taxpayers are now able to pay their tax by Debit Card over the Internet. SA taxpayers that send their 1999/2000 Tax Return over the Internet by the 31st January 2001 and pay any 1999/2000 tax due by 31 January 2001 using this Internet payment facility will qualify for a one-off discount of £10. The Land Registry launched its e-map project on 2 January. Vectorisation of the Index Map represents the final phase in computerising over 45 million records and will provide customers with a graphical electronic gateway to all land data held by the agency. The website of the Office of the e-Envoy provides a regularly updated report on Government services that are available online. World Class Supply As part of our commitment to support
innovation in UK industry, the DTI is Measuring Success
On 19 December, the Office of National Statistics published the results of its survey on Internet access for the third quarter of 2000. The survey showed that an average of 7.8 million households in the UK could access the internet from home. This amounts to 32% of all households, and is more than three times the number two years earlier. 45% of adults (equivalent to 20.5 million adults) have accessed the Internet at some time; 80% of these accessed the Internet within the last month. The survey also revealed that almost a fifth of respondents used the Internet to access Government or official services. The Office for National Statistics has undertaken its pilot study of businesses to measure the value of sales and purchases ordered on line. The results of the pilot allowed the ONS to refine its methodology. The full-scale survey was sent to businesses at the end of January 2001. This has been combined with a Eurostat e-commerce survey, so the results from this survey will provide comparable statistics across the EU. Results from the UK element of this survey should be available by the end of April. Leadership As you are aware, Andrew was appointed as the new e-Envoy at the end of last month. Following his appointment as Acting e-Envoy last October, Andrew is looking forward to continuing driving forward the government’s e-agenda and UK online campaign in order to fulfil your goal of making Britain one of the world’s leading knowledge economies<
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