The UK's Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) has announced plans to publish childminder inspection reports on the Internet. Ofsted is a non-ministerial government department whose main purpose is to help improve the quality and standards of education and childcare through independent inspection and regulation. Currently, childminder inspection reports are only available to parents who contact the childminder directly. "I am pleased to be able to provide parents with more information by publishing childminder inspection reports on the Web. I hope it will enable them to make informed choices about the care their child receives," said Ofsted chief inspector David Bell. From April 2005, the reports will be published on the Ofsted Web site, but only the childminder's registration number and part of their postcode will be made available.
IRS reorganises thanks to popularity of e-filing
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in the US is reorganising some of its operations, thanks to the increasing number of taxpayers who are filing returns electronically. The rising popularity of e-filing services means that the IRS can spend less time on manual data entry and focus more of its attention on tax enforcement. IRS Commissioner Mark Everson said the agency plans to lay off 2,400 staff who hold internal support positions in 2005 and to hire 2,200 staff for tax enforcement posts. The agency said the savings made from consolidating tax return processing operations would allow the IRS to improve enforcement operations, which have suffered from shrinking resources for a number of years. The IRS said the job cuts would not impact on the number of staff who deal directly with taxpayers. The number of returns filed electronically has increased from 4 million in 1990 to 53 million in 2003.
US responds to discovery of mad cow disease
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has proposed a number of e-government initiatives following the recent detection of BSE (mad cow disease) in a dairy cow in Washington. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said that her department's Web site, www.usda.gov, was being revamped to provide a better service to farmers and ranchers, with greater access to information and research. Veneman has also called for the establishment of a national animal identification system, to boost the speed and accuracy of the USDA's response to outbreaks of animal disease. The government is currently inviting commentary on the development of an Animal Identification Plan (USAIP) that will use radio frequency identification tags to track livestock from birth to slaughterhouse. It is expected that the system would cost around USD600 million to implement, but it is currently unclear as to who would provide the funding.
The Netherlands trials biometric passports
The Dutch government is testing biometric technology for passports and citizen ID cards. Tests of the passports and ID cards, which will contain digital facial and fingerprint information, will take place over a six-month period in a number of communities. The government intends to introduce the new passports by October 2004, when the US will require countries eligible for the visa waiver program to issue biometric passports. The technology selected by the Dutch government is consistent with the standard approved by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) last year for using facial recognition technology to identify and screen people in airports.
Broadband could benefit Australian hospitals
Australian hospitals could yield more than AUD190 million in efficiencies over 10 years through the use of broadband technology, according to a new report. The study, titled "The Economic Impact of an Accelerated Rollout of Broadband in Hospitals," was carried out by Access Economics for the Australian government's National Office for the Information Economy. The report says that hospitals would benefit from the rollout of broadband in a number of key areas, particularly psychiatry, ultrasound and radiology. The benefits were assessed not only in terms of cost savings for the government, but also in terms of improved service to patients. The report adds that Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is viewed by many key stakeholders as one of the most important benefits of the rollout of broadband, but potential savings made through VoIP were not included in the study.
Australia helps rural communities get broadband
The Australian government is helping rural communities that want Internet service providers (ISPs) to bring broadband technology to their area. The federal government has launched an initiative to provide funding to regional organisations to hire a broker to negotiate with ISPs. The Broadband Demand Aggregation Broker Program is available to not-for-profit bodies, local education providers, health service providers, local governments and other local organisations. The brokers will help organisations to co-ordinate possible users of broadband, identify appropriate services and negotiate with service providers. The government said the scheme was a key part of its AUD142.8 million National Broadband Strategy Action Plan.
Quelle: ElectricNews.Net, 14.01.2004
