IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

The UK public sector is set to outsource a further £20bn worth of services -- representing a growth of 50% over three years, according to research from Kable.

By the end of 2005, all local authorities in England should be capable of online service delivery. This represents a mammoth effort by local and central government, and an investment of £60 million into delivery of the local e-government National Projects. Already, the benefits of digital transformation are being seen in our everyday lives but, unfortunately, these benefits have not extended to all groups in society.

The government is to set up a web based self-assessment portal along with biometric residence permits as part of proposals to overhaul the UK's immigration service.

The proposals, issued on 19 July 2005, involve wideranging changes to the management of the UK's work permit system.

The team decided that there was insufficient resource both to start implementing e-procurement and at the same time produce a formal strategy document for presentation to chief officers and members.

The report accuses Parliament of failing in its democratic duty, and says that in particular it has failed "to respond adequately to the opportunities provided by modern communications and in doing so has contributed to the growing alienation of the British public".

The UK government has set up a new system for transferring information between Parliament and Whitehall departments.

The UK parliament's website "should be radically improved" as part of an overhaul of communications covering the House of Commons and the Lords, according to an influential report issued on 24 May 2005.

In a Report, Choice, Voice and Public Services, the Committee welcomes the Government’s pledge to reform services by ensuring that people have both more choices when they use services and more say—a stronger ‘voice’—in how they are provided.

Bernard Herdan, chief executive of the UKPS, said the moves are part of the agency's efforts to combat identity fraud, which often involves the creation of false passports. He was speaking at a conference organised by Government Computing, Best Practice in Data Management, on 7 April 2005.

He became the first patient in Wales to have an appointment with NHS experts over the internet.

Broadband technology has allowed a patient’s home to be connected to a hospital for the first time as part of a trial to test internet appointments.

Patients should have access to their medical records online and be able to keep track of their treatments, even making choices about medical care by emailing their doctors, the government said today.

Giving people access to data about hospital and GP services means the public will be able to exercise choice and improve standards of care, ministers say.

Patients are hooked up to equipment which can record blood pressure, oxygen levels, blood glucose levels, heart rate and breathing and weight from a central monitoring unit.

Locally, this central monitoring unit will be run by ChesterCare - part of Chester & District Housing Trust - which will automatically receive readings down the phone line in a matter of seconds.

Connecting for Health (CfH), the programme to transform NHS IT, is to invite patients and clinicians to discuss confidentiality and security issues surrounding its electronic Care Record Service, it was announced on 22 September 2005.

The kiosks will offer free internet access, text messages and tourist information.

People will also be able to pay their council tax bills, book on-line tickets and report complaints to the council.

The public sector could face a serious IT skills shortage if contractors working on e-government projects are lured back to the private sector by rising rates of pay.

New research from payroll specialist Giant Group shows that the public sector is now the UK's second-largest employer of IT contractors.