HC Deb 24 February 2003 vol 400 cc233-4W
Mr. Djanogly

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what the measures of success are for the performance of the Government's e-envoy; and whether these have been achieved. [97592]

Mr. Alexander

The Office of the E-Envoy has three core Objectives: to develop the UK as a World Leader for electronic Business; to make all government services available electronically by 2005 with key services achieving high level of use; to ensure that everyone who wants it has access to the internet by 2005. Each month the E-Minister my hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and the E-envoy (Andrew Pinder) provide a joint report to the PM. These reports set out the progress on the UK Online Strategy. These are available through the e-envoy web site on www.e-envoy.gov.uk

In November 2002 the Office of the E-Envoy published the results of independent research measuring performance against the Government's target to make the UK the best environment in the world for e-commerce by 2002. The UK was found to rank second only to the USA in the benchmarked group of leading nations. The most recent survey of online government services showed that last summer 54 per cent. of services were enabled.

UK Online Centres are an integral part of the Government's aim to ensure that everyone who wants it has access to the internet by 2005. The initial target for the introduction of UK Online Centres has been met and exceeded with the delivery of over 6,000 UK online centres at the end of 2002.