Only connect

Birmingham will be the first British city to make all its services available
online. Michael Cross reports

http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,1166470,00.html
Michael Cross

Thursday March 11, 2004

The Guardian

Birmingham is on the brink of making history. If all goes well, on March 31
it will become the first British city to make all its services available
electronically to its citizens.

This week, more than 97% of Birmingham's services were e-enabled, says Glyn
Evans, IT director. "There are increasing levels of confidence that we'll
get there."

At the city's website, www.birmingham.gov.uk, it is already possible to pay
your council tax, report an abandoned vehicle or book a sunbed at a leisure
centre (approved users only).

Birmingham won't be the first local authority to put all its services on the
web - that honour belongs to Tameside, in Greater Manchester - but it does
things on a different scale. As the city's 52,000 employees run almost every
conceivable government function short of a defence ministry, this is proof
that e-government can be a reality.

What is available, however, depends largely on where you live. Four years
after the prime minister decreed that all government services would be
e-enabled by the end of 2005, national government is about two thirds of the
way there. The Office of the e-Envoy, in charge of the effort, this week
said that 410 of the 607 things the government does for or to its citizens
and businesses are now e-enabled.

Online government gems include the police portal, which allows citizens to
report non-urgent crimes online, and the NHS portal. Among other things,
this lists current waiting times for appointments at individual hospitals.
The planning portal www.planningportal.gov.uk accepts planning applications
online (though only if you live in one of the dozen councils so far fully
connected to the service).

There are some odd omissions. One is renewing a car tax disc, which in 2001
topped a poll for the online government service that most people would like
to have. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency is about to launch a pilot
service for owners of cars less than three years old (who don't need an MOT
certificate), but doesn't want any publicity. Car owners tired of queuing at
post offices should keep an eye on www.dvla.gov.uk.

Another service being treated as a state secret is Transport Direct, the
long-awaited web portal that will combine train, bus and eventually air
transport information. It was due to go live in a couple of months, said a
spokesman this week.

Even when national government agencies get their act together, e-government
will be very much a local affair. Up to 80% of all contacts between citizens
and officialdom are with local authorities (the e-envoy, Andrew Pinder,
disagrees with this figure, which he says is exaggerated by monthly council
tax payments).

The authoritative annual survey of council websites, published last month,
shows a huge variation in what's on offer. Every local authority now has a
website, but many carry only promotional material: electronic versions of
the leaflets about local attractions that clutter up every level surface in
cheap B&Bs. According to the Better Connected report, from the local
government IT managers' association SocITM, 23 authorities now have websites
in the class of Birmingham's or Tamesides. The buzzword is "transactional" -
they allow citizens to book transactions and handle two-way communications.

Eight of the 23 are London boroughs (including the Corporation of London).
Unitary authorities such as Brighton and Hove and Bracknell, which combine
services of county and district authorities, also do well. Only three shire
counties have transactional sites, and only one authority each in Scotland
and Wales makes the grade.

Predictably, the most commonly available transaction is paying council tax
(244 authorities). Other popular transactions are reporting faulty
streetlights and graffiti. The least commonly available were making a
housing benefit claim and booking a sports facility (only 15 authorities).

The SocITM researchers found much local innovation. For example, the City of
Sunderland's planning system allows people who have submitted planning
applications to check progress by entering a reference number. Derby's
homefinder is an interactive database of council housing and housing
associations. Leeds' site accepts electronic applications for council homes,
by area and property type. Shepway district council takes graffiti seriously
- an electronic graffiti form asks about the medium used and whether the
graffiti is racist or otherwise offensive. The leader of Merton borough
council in London holds an online surgery, publishing answers to questions
submitted by form.

SocITM says that people are starting to notice that government is online.
The report says that between 3.8m and 5.7m people visited local authority
websites in December alone. This is between 8.2% and 12.3% of the population
over 15. But, unless they are lucky where they live, many of these visitors
will leave disappointed.

7 Better Connected 2004, a survey of local authority websites.
www.socitm.gov.uk.

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