This is what he said:
"Today we are considering an important part of the local e-government programme - the National Projects.
The National Projects illustrate two important messages for the local e-government programme as a whole over the next six months. Firstly they are a real success story, and secondly while the benefits they bring continue, and I hope they will go from strength to strength, the fact is that they are changing. As the local e-government programme draws to a close in December we will no longer be talking about e-government or the National Projects. Instead we will be talking about how the outcomes of this successful programme are making a major contribution to our core agenda of efficiency, service transformation and community empowerment.
I'll say more on this in a moment, but first I would like to cast your mind back to the beginning of the programme. In March 2002 just 26% of council services were e-enabled. One authoritative report commented that "at central government level the targets will probably be met. At a local level it is highly doubtful that they can be, given the resource problems, skill shortages and lack of expertise that many local authorities suffer." Now, three and a half years on, we are on course to meet the target with councils predicting on average being 98% e-enabled. Another equally authoritative source - well, a source that's occasionally hard to convince, The Guardian- acknowledges "local e-government is a remarkable achievement."
Local e-government has been a success and that's good news for the Government, good news for local government, and most importantly good news for all of us who use, and care about, public services.
When I became Local e-Government Minister in May one of the first questions I asked was: "How is what we are doing helping to bridge the Digital Divide?" How can investing in e-services benefit the 50% or more of people who either don't have access to their own PC or don't have the skills and confidence to log on? As well as being a matter of social justice, it is also of real practical relevance as the heaviest users of public services come from precisely this group.
I wasn't entirely convinced by the answers I initially got but I now see the argument that by offering cheaper self-service options to the e-literate we free up time and resources to provide for those most in need.
Also many people who have never turned on a computer in their life are recipients of e-enabled services whenever they ring their council contact centre or go into a council one stop shop to get their problem solved. This is because the frontline staff have access to their personal details through a CRM system and can call up the information they need to deal with the individual and the issue.
I recognise that there is still work to be done. Research conducted by MORI relatively recently showed that up to 46% of the adult population of England are ready and waiting to use local e-channels- but fewer actually do. This leaves a significant untapped market of millions of citizens. One method of tackling this has been the Directgov initiative which is engaging with councils to increase citizen take-up of online local authority services. In June 2005 alone it recorded over 1.35 million hits from citizens, a number which is rising every month. On the way here I was told last month that total was 1.8 million visits to the site.
And finally, I have been impressed by the many projects that are seeking to empower those currently disenfranchised from the e-world. This is by providing access to facilities in libraries and community centres and by helping people get started. The UK Online Centres are an important national resource. Projects like the 'Benefits Express' bus in Halton are a good example of an e-government service using mobile technology. The bus provides a door-step service dealing with benefits claims, and has reduced the average time for processing benefits claims from 48 days to 48 hours. Really impressive.
So how have the National Projects contributed to this success story and what of the future?
National Projects are a key part of the national strategy for local e-government. Individual projects have developed a wide range of products, some 2000 in total, to help councils of all types and sizes deliver effective e-government and meet the 2005 target.
For example, National Projects are helping councils to achieve their efficiency gains. The Benefits Realisation Studies published by the programme last December identified a potential £1.7bn savings from the six National Projects they looked at. This is a quarter of our efficiency gains target from the Spending Review 2004. To take just one project, the CRM project estimated a potential £97m from reducing costs of transactions and £425m worth of service improvements.
These are significant sums and I do not want the support required to realise them to stop after December. To ensure that this is not the case we are funding 3 of the National Projects with the most significant potential impact on the efficiency programme for a further year. These three projects, the National e-Procurement Project, FAME covering multi-agency working and data sharing, and NOMAD looking at mobile working on benefit assessments will all continue their work and support the Regional Centres of Excellence.
Some critics and some local authorities claim that the Government is no longer interested in the National Projects and that we are abandoning them. That is not true. Let's remember what the National Projects are for. The National Projects are part of the local e-government programme. Their aim is to complement other programme work streams to assist councils to e-enable their services by December 2005. They have achieved their purpose as it is pretty clear we are going to meet that target.
I'm sure there will be a debate about the different contributions made by the different work streams of the programme, and whether 22 was the right number of projects. But the National Projects have achieved their primary objective. It was never a case of abandoning the National Projects in December. The programme has come to the end of its allotted life. We have achieved what we set out to do. We are taking seriously the closing down of legacy projects over the next six months.
But as well as managing the closure of the e-government programme I also have other responsibilities which is why we have spent the last year working with the National Projects to migrate them to new homes. One of the clear messages from local authorities was that take up of National Project products would be low unless there was some reassurance that products would be maintained and developed beyond this December and we have taken that on board.
Also while we were never in the business of establishing 22 dot.coms we would be neglecting our responsibilities to the tax payer if we did not seek to exploit to the full the new products developed over the last two years as our result of our investment.
Our policy on the National Projects balances these competing objectives. We are continuing to actively promote the roll out of National Project products until December, while offering local government the chance to exploit the business opportunities offered by our joint investment over the last two years. If there is a demonstrable market for the products they will develop and thrive. The reaction so far shows that we were right to offer the products in the first instance to the lead authorities which have invested time and energy in their creation. The response of these authorities has by and large been enthusiastic.
This process started back in July when next door in the House of Commons I handed over ownership of the Smartcard National Project to Bracknell Forest Borough Council.
Today I'm pleased to announce that three months on almost half - that's 12 of the 26 product sets - have been transferred to their new local authority owners. The latest three are the National e-Procurement Project, the e-Democracy Project and e-Pay which have been signed off today. Two of these projects I hope will make an important contribution to the efficiency agenda, while the e-Democracy project is developing and promoting new ways of reconnecting citizens with their councils and councillors.
I congratulate the three lead authorities - the London Borough of Newham (you'll forgive me for mentioning that first but it is in my constituency), Hammersmith and Fulham and North Lincolnshire Council alongside the other project lead authorities for taking on these projects. It shows confidence in the National Project products and in those councils' entrepreneurial abilities. I hope that the products will be around for some considerable time, repaying our joint investment and providing valuable support for all councils as we move forward on service transformation.
Ladies and Gentlemen, over 400 delegates will be attending the four regional EXPOs promoting the National Project products and other e-government solutions over the next six weeks. This demonstrates the continuing importance and relevance of the National Projects, not just in helping councils deliver the 2005 target or indeed the 2004 Spending Review efficiency target, but as an integral part of the local government scene longer term. While local electronic government might be fading from view over the next two years efficient and effective government will just grow and grow in importance. I'm determined that we build on the solid foundations constructed by the local e-government programme in the coming years.
So in conclusion, thank you for being this afternoon and spending some of your very valuable time. This is an important milestone in the local e-government programme. The programme has been a success. The National Projects have demonstrated local government's ability to work together for the wider good. My thanks to the lead authorities for showing their commitment and confidence in the projects. The challenge now is for the rest of the local government community to respond, to show that confidence is not misplaced. We need to continue to use the output of the projects to deliver better, more efficient services for all. I'm confident local government can and will rise to that challenge."
Quelle: Publictechnology, 24.10.2005
