IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

The UK comes 12th out of 22 countries, way behind Canada, the number one. In short, thought many UK e-government services are live, there's not a great deal of transactional capability yet.

A key finding which needs to be taken on board both by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and the soon to be created eGovernment replacement to the Office of the e-envoy is that the UK's online public services come 8th in Europe - not performing as well (in terms of sophistication) as many other EU contries (see table below for details).

Only half of the UK government's services are currently online, with less than 12 months to go to meet the 2005 target of 100 per cent, according to a new study.

The UK has slipped down the global egovernment rankings for the second year running, according to research.

Since 2002, the UK has slipped from sixth to ninth position and is growing more slowly than other developed countries, says the annual international study by consultancy Accenture.

The UK's e-government programme appears to be stagnating, according to the worrying results of an influential benchmarking study.

The surge in public sector deals across the consultancy industry has delivered positive results, making the UK among the best in Europe at providing public services online.

The UK is in the chasing pack of European nations striving to deliver public services electronically, according to the latest league tables from Cap Gemini Ernst & Young (CGEY).

The survey, performed by Capgemini for the EU, studied 14,000 websites across 28 countries - the 25 member states, including those that joined last year, plus Norway, Iceland and Switzerland.

It estimates that £1.5 billion is being wasted on complex and expensive CRM systems, and says that local and central government services and websites are no more accessible to citizens than before.

The key point is that this is not the only survey, or the only strand of common sense which indicates that the only way to make e-Government used is to generate awareness for it, explain its value to the citizen, urge them to use it, and tempt them into doing so for enough times for the experience to be habit-forming.

Birmingham is the most advanced city in Europe in provision of eGovernment, according to a new report.

The city has come top of a benchmarking survey of e-goverance initiatives in 35 European cities across 12 EU Member States.

Birmingham has the most advanced egovernment in Europe, according to a study by the Spanish university of Zaragoza.

The study rated 35 European cities on the breadth and depth of the online services they provide, the level of e-democracy that has been developed, and how much elected officials use it to communicate.

A survey of 25 local authorities, which included county councils, shire districts and unitary authorities, showed that councils have paid less attention to web provision for companies than they have for citizens.