IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Council websites can play a key role in the government's efficiency agenda but must first offer easy to use transactional services, according to a briefing for local authorities issued on 30 March 2005.

The body responsible for handling complaints about the police has revamped its website in order to offer a new e-form service.

The site is designed to be easier to use for people making complaints, staff in the police service and other visitors. Once a complaint is submitted, the forms are forwarded by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPPC) to the police force concerned to be officially recorded and dealt with.

The government is to set up a national digital system to provide traffic information to drivers on England's motorways, it was announced on 19 September 2005.

The £490m National Roads Telecommuncations Services project will upgrade existing systems and initiate a network linking motorway message signs, emergency telephones, CCTV cameras and the Highways Agency's traffic control centres.

Huntingdonshire is using Publisher to consult on its Core Strategy preferred options, which were launched at the end of June. Michael Bingham, Development Plans Manager, said: “A key benefit for us has been the ability to produce a web-based version of the Core Strategy very easily, and to handle comments electronically.”

The UK Patent Office has received just 1000 online patent applications in the first year of its the e-filing system which went live in August 2004.

In a typical year the Patent Office receives 30,000 applications, of which about 17,000 are searched. Only about 11,500 are examined of which about 8,000 are granted.

The government has allocated £170m for local authorities to further develop online planning services, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister announced on 22 July 2005.

The ODPM's Planning Delivery Grant is designed to reward councils for making progress in e-planning as well as speed in determining applications and improving housing provision. The grant is often used by councils to introduce new IT systems. According to official figures, 22% of the funding is spent on IT while 46% goes on staffing costs.

Online self assessment tax filing has had an impact.

The government set targets to make all council services available online by the end of 2005 under the Best Value Performance Indicator (BVPI), which it uses to assess how well councils are being run. However, Socitm policy officer Adrian Hancock said local authority IT managers were questioning whether these artificial targets would lead to online services the public want to use.

If self-assessment tax returns are received by 30 September, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) guarantee to make the calculations and tell you what you need to pay in time for the 31 January deadline for payment.

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has set up a new IT system to help monitor progress towards regeneration in deprived communities.

The web based system, launched on 14 April 2004, contains data for all English local authorities down to district level, although the focus is on the 88 poorest areas that receive Neighbourhood Renewal Funds from the Government.

Carried out on behalf of Teasel Performance Management, the report reveals that of those that do measure customer satisfaction, in-house contact centres were much more proactive on overall assessment, with 83% sending out questionnaires; 43% calling customers at random; 43% calculating average call value; and 26% asking customers to stay on the line to complete a brief survey. The most common approach to measuring customer satisfaction (100%) was to listen to a selection of calls and make a judgement

Records of births, deaths and marriage are to be electronically transferred to databases in India under Office of National Statistics (ONS) plans to digitise the population register for England and Wales.

The ONS is due to sign a contract with Siemens Business Services (SBS) in mid July 2005 which involves sending registry data over to Chennai (Madras) through the supplier's network.

The department has signed a three-year contract with Siemens Business Services to create a database of the documents, and says that part of the work will be carried out offshore, to keep costs down.

The three year project, called Digitisation of Vital Events (DoVE) is part of the strategy to modernise civil registration. The computerised record of all vital events will enable a more efficient service for people buying certificates. This project will deliver significant efficiencies in the production of certificates, moving from a labour intensive manual process to a streamlined automated process. The ONS received more than 2 million applications for certificates last year.