The UK may not be ranked as Europe's best e-government performer but it easily outstrips other countries on IT spending, according to new research. The country heads the European IT spend league tables devoting an astonishing €16bn on public sector IT over the past year, €4bn more than second placed France.
Kable's latest research takes account of spending in eight areas of the public sector: national government, local councils, regional authorities, health, defence, criminal justice, education and transport.
Also behind the UK, in third place is Germany, says the report, spending €11.8bn. Italy is futher down the table on €5.4bn, Spain follows on €4.4bn, and Ireland is near the bottom on €487m.
The research covers 17 countries across the continent, with an overall expenditure totalling €67.9bn.
While the UK is the biggest overall spender, it is behind some other countries in terms of IT expenditure per head of population, however.
Here it is in fourth place behind the Scandinavian countries – Denmark, Norway and Sweden – according to the research.
Although the UK Government is proving adept at spending on IT, the figures are not matched by performance. Various attempts at benchmarking have placed the UK behind other European countries in progress to e-government.
Accenture's e-government study placed Denmark ahead while the UK Government's own survey, commissioned from consultant Booze Allen Hamilton last year had Sweden and Germany making more progress.
Kable's ongoing research studies are a result of interviews with public sector IT staff across Europe.
The European public sector ICT spend report is available on the KableDirect research service.
Quelle: Kablenet
