§ Mr. VazTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (1) what assessment he has made of the accessibility of Government Ministers and civil servants by e-mail; [23570]
(2) how many (a) Cabinet and (b) other Ministers have an e-mail address. [23567]
§ Dr. David ClarkI refer my hon. Friend to the reply I gave the hon. Member for North Essex (Mr. Jenkin) on 10 November 1997,Official Report, column 441.
In addition, I would add that officials in CITU and CCTA are currently reviewing the situation in conjunction with Departments and agencies. Once this review has taken place, we will be looking at the most appropriate way of placing a comprehensive listing of ministerial e-mail addresses in the public domain.
§ Mr. VazTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what percentage of civil servants have an e-mail address. [23568]
§ Dr. David ClarkWhilst this information is not held centrally, I am pleased to report that there are nearly 2,000 departmental, agency and NDPB connections to the500W CCTA e-mail service, many of which act as shared e-mail addresses for teams of civil servants rather than for individual officials.
In addition, just over 4,000 civil servants currently have e-mail access to the Government Secure Intranet. On present estimates this figure is expected to rise to between 10,000 to 15,000 by mid 1998.
§ Mr. VazTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what steps he proposes to increase the proportion of Ministers and civil servants who are connected to the Internet. [23569]
§ Dr. David ClarkThis is essentially the responsibility of individual departments. However I am pleased to report that the Central IT Unit in my Department has established a Government Secure Intranet service which will increase the proportion of Ministers and civil servants who are connected to the Internet. I intend to make a further announcement of this matter in due course and I will write to my hon. Friend at that time.