One of the documents considered around the Malmo meeting of ministers is the Smarter, Faster, Better eGovernment, 8th Benchmark Measurement report by Capgemini etc for the European Commission. Its available on the Capgemini site.
I’ve not taken much notice of the previous seven for the very fact that they are focused on central government so much and, as in the case of this report, not all the services being benchmarked are delivered centrally in the UK. In fact, in the UK we need to remember that 80% of interactions with the public are delivered by local government (according to one academic report I read recently!)
In the context and content of the report, Capgemini place the control for e-government in the UK to the Cabinet Office – I wonder where the ODPM were in 2000 – 2006, then the DCLG, or for that matter the 300 plus local authorities?
One thing the report has finally started to pick up on is citizen satisfaction and the need for feedback channels. Unfortunately, they seem to have got the impression that this is somehow a strongpoint in the UK, whilst it’s still really only in its infancy.
I’m not sure what the value of such a report is, apart from shoring up the egos of those ministers in the top few, or highlighting the dismal failure of those less successful, but I’d like to see another report examining those countries whose citizens are most satisfied with service delivery across the channels – now that would be interesting!
The Great E-mancipator 