The government is creating a series of toolkits to speed up the adoption of online services by local authorities. The toolkits, covering services from planning and school admission to working with local businesses, are models for developing e-government services based on work already done in local government.
Local government minister Christopher Leslie has asked for £80m to invest in national e-government toolkits.
Last week 12 national projects were approved by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. It has asked for £40m for the first batch of projects, and expects funding approval by the end of March.
"Together these projects will provide the broad framework for the development of local e-government in England," said Leslie.
Another group of projects will be announced later, with similar funding.
Liz Hobson, senior project officer of e-government at the Local Government Association, welcomed the move.
"We support the principle of having solutions that the authorities can [reference], and the national projects should be good news for authorities because it will avoid duplication," she said.
The first toolkit is based on Wandsworth Borough Council's e-planning model, which has matured into a £4.5m national project.
The Wandsworth-led National Project for Planning and Regulatory Services, which has its roots in the Pathfinder projects, is set to create a toolkit for other local authorities for online planning and building services.
Pathfinder projects were launched over two years ago to provide models for e-government strategies.
Wandsworth council launched its planning web pages in 1996, and added an online planning application facility last year with Pathfinder funding.
Quelle: vnunet
