The minister responsible for local e-government has said that councils are likely to have three quarters of their services online by March 2004. Phil Hope, junior minister at the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM), said that councils have met a November deadline to submit the latest round of e-government statements and understands that they report "significant progress", he said on 12 November 2003.
He was making his first public speech on e-government since his summer appointment.
Although Hope could not give any detailed results on the Implementing Electronic Government (IEG) returns, he said his department expects councils are reporting that, "75% of their functions will be e-enabled by next March."
Hope said that councils' progress on e-government so far had "exceeded" minister's expectations. He also further elaborated on the 2005 target.
By 2005, he said, the Government expects councils to have "services which are easy to use", a leadership committed to e-government and improved communications between local councillors and the public.
Councils were required to submit their e-government statements by 10 November 2003. The statements are intended to influence the distribution of £175m of funding in 2004-05 and £96.5m in 2005-06.
Quelle: Kablenet, 13.11.2003
