HL Deb 14 July 2003 vol 651 cc87-8WA
The Earl of Northesk

asked Her Majesty's Government:

How they responded to the 2003 IDC/World Times Information Society Index indicating that the United Kingdom has slipped out of the 10 top-performing countries from its seventh place of last year. [HL3797]

Lord Sainsbury of Turville

It is disappointing to see that the United Kingdom has fallen from seventh position to eleventh in the 2003 IDC/World Times Information Society Index. However, of the G7 countries only the USA in eighth position and Canada, 10th, rank higher than the UK in the index. In other recent international surveys the UK has performed well, ranking second in the world for its environment for e-commerce in the 2002 Booz Allen Hamilton Study on the World's Most Effective Policies for the e-Economy, and joint third in the Economist Intelligence Unit's 2003 e-Readiness rankings, which looks at the extent to which a market is conducive to Internet-based opportunities in the world's sixty largest economies. The Government are continuing to pursue a range of policies with the aim of making the UK a world leader in take up and usage of information and communication technologies and we will look at the findings of the Information Society Index to see what lessons can be learned.