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+++E-GOVERNMENT BULLETIN
- ISSUE 139, 20 June 2003.
The email newsletter on electronic government,
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++ISSUE 139 CONTENTS.
01: e-voting triallists ready for more
- Swindon research is boost for national poll.
02: Russian e-revolution
- identity card system planned.
03: Mystery of the missing priorities
- councils accuse government of policy shift.
04: TeleCities focus on e-democracy
- events in Finland and Portugal.
05: Innovation forum underway
- policy grouping for elite councils.
News in brief: 06: Security agency: EU proposal; 07: Take-up
workshop - one-day seminar; 08: Cost imbalance - savings evaporate;
09: Knowledge survey - magazine research; 10: Course report -
computer driving licences.
Section two: Interview - Scottish Information Commissioner.
11: New information era: In Scotland, moves to guarantee wider access
to information are gathering pace. Recently-appointed information
commissioner Kevin Dunion talks to Dan Jellinek about the way
ahead.
Section three: Conference report - GC2003.
12: A problem shared is a problem solved? For councils, effective local
partnerships are a key part of e-government. But further progress
requires closer ties with central government as well, reports Derek
Parkinson.
[Contents ends].
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++SECTION ONE: NEWS.
+01: E-VOTING TRIALLISTS READY FOR MORE.
More than 90 per cent of Swindon residents who voted online in trials
of new technology during this May's council elections would choose to
vote electronically in a general election, E-Government Bulletin has
learned.
A quarter of all votes in Swindon this year were cast using the internet,
touch-tone phones, interactive TV and street kiosks. Of the 15,000
Swindon voters who took part in a new survey currently being
prepared for publication, 94 per cent said they would choose to vote
online in a general election. "We weren't particularly surprised by
these results," said Alan Winchcombe, electoral services manager at
Swindon. "Voters now expect us to provide electronic voting".
In a separate survey, fellow e-voting triallist Sheffield council also
received an overwhelmingly positive response from voters. Of 7,600
internet voters who took part in an online survey, 97 per cent said they
would choose to vote electronically in the next local election.
However, there is still uncertainty about when the next e-enabled
elections might be run. Further pilots in June 2004 are in jeopardy
because the government plans to combine local and European elections
on the same day, and current law allows for e-voting in local elections
only (see E-Government Bulletin, issue 137, 14 May 2003).
The Lord Chancellor's Department (http://www.lcd.gov.uk) was
originally tasked with examining potential changes to the legislation,
but will now be absorbed into the new Department of Constitutional
Affairs. A spokesperson said this week he could not confirm whether
the necessary legal changes will be pushed through in time.
NOTE: A new report by the Electoral Reform Society has concluded
that e-voting failed to boost overall turnout significantly in the May
elections. See:
http://fastlink.headstar.com/ers1 .
+02: RUSSIAN E-REVOLUTION
The Russian government plans to introduce electronic identity cards
for its citizens which would eventually combine identification data
with other personal and public service information such as medical
records, housing information, and pensions and tax details.
The country's minister of economic development and trade German
Gref unveiled the plans this month at a board meeting of the national
'e-Russia' programme (see E-Government Bulletin issue 132, 7 March
2003).
According to a report on the meeting by the e-government competence
centre of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia
(http://www.e-govcompetence.ru/en), Gref said it was now an "urgent
task" to form a shared database holding citizen information accessible
to government agencies. "It will lead to substantial savings . . . and will
give an instrument for planning social and economic policy in the
medium term," the minister said.
The project is likely to be managed by a private sector company, in a
public-private partnership based on major government technology
projects in the UK, he said.
The meeting also acknowledged the success of a pilot e-procurement
programme which has generated 20 per cent savings in the Chuvashia
region of Russia, as well as the establishment of internet access points
in post offices and other public service outlets in some regions.
The government also plans to encourage internet take-up to grow to 15
per cent of the country's population by 2006, or 21.5 million users.
+03: MYSTERY OF THE MISSING PRIORITIES.
The local government IT managers' association Socitm this month
accused the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) of dropping
a commitment to allow councils to focus resources on key local e-
government services, rather than diluting them across all service areas.
Draft guidance from the ODPM on how councils should create their
third annual round of 'implementing electronic government' policy
statements does not mention the concept of "priority outcomes and
services", Socitm says.
According to the Socitm's consultation response
(http://fastlink.headstar.com/soc2) the omission contradicts a public
service agreement between the ODPM and the Treasury made in 2000
which said the ODPM would assist "local government achieve 100 per
cent capability in electronic delivery of priority services by 2005, in
ways that consumers will use".
"The continued emphasis on achieving 100 per cent of everything,
regardless of whether they will be used or are seen as priorities, is in
direct contradiction to . . . principles of value for money," the response
said.
The row comes at a time when the government's own central
technology policy department, the Office of the e-Envoy, is widely
perceived as having shifted away from insisting on digitisation of all
public services to allow a stronger focus on key services. Final IEG
guidance will be issued at the end of June, when the ODPM will also
issue a statement about the amount of money which will be allocated to
those handing in acceptable statements.
+04: TELECITIES FOCUS ON E-DEMOCRACY.
TeleCities (http://www.telecities.org), a group of more than 100 urban
local authorities from 20 European countries set up to share technology
ideas, is this month embarking on a series of e-democracy initiatives.
The group's annual 'e-citizenship' survey (http://195.193.20.24) aims
to trigger new initiatives in this area by inviting TeleCities members
and other cities to complete questionnaires about their e-democracy
background. The findings will be captured in a database to be used as a
benchmarking tool to which Telecities members will have free access.
The group is also hosting a summer event in Finland next week entitled
'eDemocracy and smart cities' (http://www.tampere.fi/telecities2003).
Follow-up work including e-democracy awards will be presented in a
further events in Porto, Portugal in November.
+05: INNOVATION FORUM UNDERWAY.
E-government initiatives will form a key part of the work of a new
policy grouping of leading councils, it was announced this month.
The 'Innovation forum' is made up of 22 local authorities rated as
'excellent' in their performance assessment reports by the Audit
Commission.
Public service integration, performance improvement and e-
government will be the main drivers for new initiatives to be developed
by the forum, according to an introductory briefing from the Office of
the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM -
http://fastlink.headstar.com/innovation1). Specific policy areas singled
out for focus will include school improvement, community safety and
the care of older people.
The grouping will be co-chaired by Sunderland council chief executive
Colin Sinclair and an official from the ODPM. Members will have
access to electronic discussion and information sharing technology
hosted by the Improvement and Development Agency, and will next
meet in person in October.
++NEWS IN BRIEF:
+06: SECURITY AGENCY: The EU's telecommunications council
has proposed the creation of a European Network and Information
Security Agency to offer member states guidance on how to combat
hacking, virus attacks and other threats to information networks. The
proposal will be assessed by European Parliament in November:
http://ue.eu.int/pressData/en/trans/76064.pdf .
+07: TAKE-UP WORKSHOP: E-Government Bulletin is hosting a
one-day seminar on boosting take-up of e-government services at the
Globe Theatre, central London on 23 July. A single public sector
delegate place is 295 pounds plus VAT; and 395 for private sector
delegates. Additional delegates booking at the same time will receive a
100 pound discount. For more information, please email:
[log in to unmask] .
+08: COST IMBALANCE: The costs of implementing e-government
services will outweigh the savings they generate up until 2012,
according to the 'Cost savings report' from analysts Kable. In the year
2005-06, e-government will generate savings of 289 million pounds
but spending will top 1.2 billion:
http://fastlink.headstar.com/kable1 .
+09: KNOWLEDGE SURVEY: Knowledge Management magazine is
conducting a survey on knowledge management in the public sector.
Results will be published later this year. To take part see:
http://www.kmmagazine.com/kmpssurvey.asp .
+10: COURSE REPORT: Some 28 per cent of local authorities are
planning to use the European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL)
computer literacy standard to train their staff as part of their e-
government plans, according to 'Passing the test: a snapshot of ECDL
experience', a new report from the Society of IT Management:
http://www.socitm.gov.uk .
[Section one ends].
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++ SECTION TWO: INTERVIEW
- SCOTTISH INFORMATION COMMISSIONER.
+11: NEW INFORMATION ERA.
by Dan Jellinek [log in to unmask]
Kevin Dunion, Scotland's first Information Commissioner, has been
busy since his appointment in February. While Scotland had originally
lagged behind England and Wales in the implementation of freedom of
information law, the past two weeks have seen the country speed up its
activity in this area with new timetables and new appointments.
First, the deadline for compliance with the Freedom of Information Act
(Scotland) 2002 (http://fastlink.headstar.com/foi4) has been brought
forward a full year to 31 December 2004, harmonising Scottish
authorities with the deadline for all English and Welsh public bodies to
comply fully with the Freedom of Information Act 2000
(http://fastlink.headstar.com/foi3).
Then last week two senior staff were appointed to support Dunion:
Margaret Keyse, former principal solicitor of Angus Council who
becomes the commission's head of investigations in charge of
compliance; and Sarah Hutchison, former head of policy and
information at Fife Council who will head the commission's external
communications work including good practice guidance.
By August the team will be in place, and over the course of next year
the commission will be approving the freedom of information
publication schemes of more than 9,000 public bodies ahead of the
new compliance deadline.
Then from 2005 Dunion will have the power to oblige public
authorities to release information requested by the public, and
investigate where he feels the environment within a body is not
conducive to compliance, for example where good information
management practices and technologies are not in place.
Although his powers are less broad than that of UK Information
Commissioner Richard Thomas - they do not cover data protection
law, for which Thomas has UK-wide control - in some respects they
will be stronger, Dunion says.
"The Scottish regime was devised by looking not just at the UK law
but also at Ireland and New Zealand," he says. "The biggest difference
between Scottish law and that for the rest of the UK is that we will
have no information tribunal to review the decisions I take. In England
and Wales public bodies will be able to appeal any decision to release
information to a tribunal, whereas in Scotland I can only be challenged
on a point of law in the Court of Session.
Scottish ministers will also have less power to intervene in his work
than UK ministers will have south of the border, Dunion says. And
finally the 'harm test' has been set at a higher level in Scotland: while
public bodies elsewhere in the UK will simply have to show that
"prejudice to their interest" would arise from the release of a piece of
information, in Scotland bodies will have to demonstrate "substantial"
prejudice.
Dunion knows at first hand how hard it can be to winkle information
from public bodies, from his background as an environmentalist with
more than ten years as chief executive of Friends of the Earth Scotland.
"If we wanted to see a council's business case for building a new road,
for example, to see how they had worked out it was better value for
money, we were often denied the information because it was deemed
commercially confidential, even though it was public money," he says.
"Sometimes there was a poor interpretation of existing European
Commission guidelines, since commercial confidentiality could have
been observed simply by striking out some information rather than
withholding the entire document. It was the same for many planning
and health service decisions.
"But a modern government recognises that it should not be entering
into careless contracts which withhold information which should be in
the public domain."
Dunion says he expects contract information, including details of
tendering and procurement processes for public-private partnership and
private finance initiative deals, to be a major area of new disclosure
requests.
Overall, he says the purpose of the new legislation is no less than to
change the entire culture of politics in Scotland for the better. "It is to
make sure that, in a democracy, those in power are held accountable on
a daily basis, and that each decision they make can be challenged."
In some parts of the public sector such as the police service the culture
change required will be considerable, he says. Other key challenges
include ensuring computer network and other digital technologies
across the public sector are modern and efficient enough to support the
strong information management which is essential to underpin freedom
of information law.
"At the moment, I am being told that there are concerns that there are
large areas of the public sector without proper systems. They hold lots
of historical information, but not in a format to be accessible. This is a
concern because freedom of information law will be retrospective in
Scotland, as in England and Wales although unlike in Ireland where
they got around this problem by saying information from before 1998
is not subject to the law. So there could be difficulties with old
material."
Dunion denies, however, that the problems will mean that the law is
effectively unenforceable for all bodies, or all types of information.
"Public sector bodies are simply going to have to beef up their libraries
and archival records. And this will boost their efficiency whether or
not people request information."
The Scottish commission will issue guidance to assist public bodies in
all the tasks they will have to carry out, including an overarching code
of practice on records management, and also has the power to
investigate where systems seem to be going wrong and make
recommendations for improvement.
All in all Dunion is not expecting the quick pace of his first few
months in office to slow down much over the five years of his contract
in the job. "It is my job to uphold the law, not to referee between the
public and government bodies. The Irish information commissioner
find himself in court reasonably often and I am prepared for this."
[Section two ends].
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[Special notice ends].
++SECTION THREE: CONFERENCE REPORT
- GC2003
+12: A PROBLEM SHARED IS A PROBLEM SOLVED?
by Derek Parkinson [log in to unmask] .
Share knowledge, and joined-up government will follow: such was the
theme of last week's Government Computing 2003 conference. Most
discussion at the event centred around the need to create successful
partnerships, a key requirement for local authorities to achieve the
2005 e-government service target and to exploit the potential of
seamless electronic services.
The recently-unveiled national projects for local e-government
(http://fastlink.headstar.com/odpm5) aim to pool the knowledge and
experience gained by local authorities from previous pilot projects such
as pathfinders, and build user-friendly packages of e-government
technology that can be installed and used by all councils.
A key element underpinning these partnerships will be national
standards. Each national project will have a standards component, with
funding for a workgroup that will gather information on existing
standards and develop new standards with agencies such as the Office
of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM), the Office of the e-Envoy
(http://www.e-envoy.gov.uk), and the Improvement and Development
Agency (http://www.idea.gov.uk).
According to ODPM modernisation adviser Chris Haynes, the work on
standards (http://www.localegov-standards.org) will ensure that
partners on national projects work together effectively to develop
applications that can easily be shared with other councils, avoiding
duplication of work across different projects "In fact, the work will
form a national project in itself," he said.
However, Haynes said standards should not be seen simply as a barrier
to entry for national projects, more a way of disseminating the
knowledge built into them. "As long as they aren't way off base, the
national projects won't be hindered by standards. The aim is to make
disseminating knowledge a part of e-government partnerships, and
standards will bring a little bit of cohesion to the work," he told E-
Government Bulletin. "If a council wants to know the state of play in a
particular area, it can contact the Local e-Government Standards
Body." The stream of knowledge tapped will be broader than just
technical information, embracing issues such as best practices for
delivering services and managing change in organisations.
But partnerships cannot live by standards alone. To flourish, they need
adequate levels of funding delivered at the right time, and it is here that
holes can appear in the fabric. "E-government has exposed some
underlying problems with the way local government is funded,"
London's e-Envoy Valerie Shawcross told the conference.
"The picture of public services in London is fiendishly complex, with a
hugely diverse population," she said. "It has some of the most
successful public sector organisations in the UK, while others face the
most desperate struggle". While progress has been made with local e-
government partnerships, Shawcross said there is a need for London-
wide projects if consistent levels of service are to be delivered across
the capital.
"There are core projects that require all agencies to act together, such
as our proposals for a multi-function smart card and a public services
portal. This is also true of infrastructure such as the network
requirements for public services," she said.
However, there are funding obstacles when knitting local partnerships
together into London-wide projects, Shawcross said. For example, the
Greater London Assembly recently conceived a plan that would have
seen e-government applications developed by the South East London
partnership adapted for use across the capital under the London
Connects programme (http://fastlink.headstar.com/london1). However,
progress stalled last month when the ODPM allocated local e-
government funds for more development work by the South East
London partnership, but not for London Connects. At present it is
unclear why this decision was taken. "We've had difficulty getting any
feedback," she told E-Government Bulletin.
There are also problems with the short-term nature of central
government funding. "Partnerships need consistency and it's very
difficult to achieve this when funds are allocated on a year by year
basis," said Shawcross. "This is not just an issue for London. I've
heard views elsewhere along these lines," she added.
Difficulties like these may be symptomatic of an underlying problem.
According to Shawcross the funding relationship between central and
local government is based on a model unsuited to joining up services.
"We've got to dump the donor and recipient mentality if we want these
projects to be securely funded," she said.
But what model could take its place? "Our relationship with the ODPM
needs to be more of a partnership," said Shawcross.
++END NOTES.
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ISSN 1476-6310
+PERSONNEL
- EDITORIAL.
Editor - Dan Jellinek [log in to unmask]
Deputy editor - Phil Cain [log in to unmask]
Features editor - Derek Parkinson [log in to unmask]
Reporter - Mel Poluck [log in to unmask] .
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[Issue ends].
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