§ 10. Mr. TimmsIf he will list the transactions with Government which will be capable of being undertaken electronically in the first stage of his programme. [19610]
§ Dr. David ClarkI am aware of the good work being done by the Newham advice arcade, and the work that is being done with the touch-screen kiosk in that area. Much good work is being done at local level throughout the country. I chair the central-local partnership ministerial group on public services and public service delivery, whose aim is to learn as much as possible from those projects. We intend to conduct an audit and an assessment of what is being done to spread the best practice in electronic service across the country.
§ Mr. TimmsI thank my right hon. Friend for that answer. Is not the problem that little progress was made in this area under the previous Government? We had to depend on local initiatives to make the running in the electronic delivery of services. Does my right hon. Friend agree with me that the Government have a lot to learn from what has already been achieved at local level?
§ Dr. ClarkGenerally, and especially in the field of information technology, central Government can learn a great deal from our local government cousins. Last week, I launched an intelligent form for the electronic notification of self-employment. One form filled in electronically will be dispatched instantaneously to three separate Government Departments. That will replace paper access, which at times required up to 14 forms, and which accounted for a vast number of errors, often reaching a rate of 40 per cent.