§ Mr. DalyellTo ask, the Minister for the Cabinet Office pursuant to the oral answer of 18 May 2004,Official Report, column 822, on e-Government, if he will break down by Department the £1 billion provided to improve take-up of Government online services. [179788]
§ Mr. Alexander[holding answer 22 June 2004]: The £1 billion my hon. Friend referred to is the amount which was allocated during the 2002 Spending Review to invest in broadband connectivity for public services. The main recipients of these are: the Department for Education and Skills, for plans to provide all primary and secondary schools with 2Mb and 8Mb broadband connections respectively by 2006; the national health service, to provide all general practitioners practices with 256k connectively, and all hospitals, primary care trusts and other health authorities with a minimum of 2Mb; the Criminal Justice System to provide information communication technology infrastructure across the six major criminal justice organisations-police, crown prosecution service, magistrates courts, crown court, probation and prisons.
Responsibility for effective co-ordination of this expenditure rests with the Department for Trade and Industry.