§ Mr. PicklesTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister what progress has been made on achieving the Government's objective of putting all local authority public services online by 2005; and if he will make a statement. [65865]
§ Mr. RaynsfordAll local authorities (bar one) in England responded in July 2001 to the invitation to prepare and submit Implementing e-Government Statements. These are corporate plans focus how each authority approaching the task of e-enabling their services.
Local government's self-assessment, as reported in their statements, of the average availability of electronic services as at July 2001 was at 29 per cent against the National Target (all services e-enabled by end of 2005). On the basis of these statements we expect local authorities to reach 45 per cent by March 2003, 73 per cent by March 2004 and 100 per cent by 2005.
In April we published for consultation a draft National Strategy (e-gov@local: towards a national strategy for local e-government) that seeks to clarify a common and ambitious vision of local e-government and promote its delivery. We are also providing £350 million (over three years from 2001–02) of investment to promote its e-delivery in local government, which includes:
£160 million over the next two years to local authorities (ie £400k each) to support the implementation of their local strategies.A further £75 million over the same period will be made available to partnerships of councils working together and with other local public service bodies. This will encourage local economies of scale and joined-up local services.Up to £80 million over the next two years will be spent in creating generic e-government solutions—based on best practice—around key technologies (such as smartcards and websites) and priority services (such as online school admissions, planning applications) which can be made available to all authorities. Thereby helping to speed up the introduction of e-government and reducing the gross investment costs to the public purse.