What is it? e-gov in England

What is it? e-gov in England

E-government (from electronic government, also known as e-gov, digital government, online government or in a certain context transformational government) refers to government's use of information technology to exchange information and services with citizens, businesses, and other arms of government.

E-government may be applied by the legislature, judiciary, or administration, in order to improve internal efficiency, the delivery of public services, or processes of democratic governance. The primary delivery models are Government-to-Citizen or Government-to-Customer (G2C), Government-to-Business (G2B) and Government-to-Government (G2G). The most important anticipated benefits of e-government include improved efficiency, convenience, and better accessibility of public services.

While e-government is often thought of as 'online government' or 'Internet-based government,' many non-Internet 'electronic government' technologies can be used in this context. Some non-internet forms include telephone, fax, SMS text messaging, MMS, wireless networks and services, Bluetooth, identity cards, smart cards and other; polling station technology (where non-online e-voting is being considered), TV and radio-based delivery of government services, email, online community facilities, newsgroups and electronic mailing lists, online chat, and instant messaging technologies. There are also some technology-specific sub-categories of e-government, such as m-government (mobile government), u-government (ubiquitous government), and g-government (GIS/GPS applications for e-government).

There are many considerations and potential implications of implementing and designing e-government, including disintermediation of the government and its citizens, impacts on economic, social, and political factors, and disturbances to the status quo in these areas.

Development and implementation issues

The development and implementation of e-government involves consideration of its effects including environmental, social, cultural, educational, and consumer issues, among others.

Governments may need to consider the impact by gender, age, language skills, and cultural diversity, as well as the effect on literacy, numeracy, education standards and IT literacy. Economic concerns include the 'Digital divide,' or the effect of non-use, non-availability or inaccessibility of e-government, or of other digital resources, upon the structure of society, and the potential impact on income and economics.

In England

In countries such as the United Kingdom, there is interest in using electronic government to re-engage citizens with the political process. In particular, this has taken the form of experiments with electronic voting, aiming to increase voter turnout by making voting easy. The UK Electoral Commission has undertaken several pilots, though concern has been expressed about the potential for fraud with some electronic voting methods.

The UK government's objective was that all of public services in England should be capable of being delivered electronically since 31 December 2005. The Modernising Government White Paper of March 1999 proposed 'all dealings with government being deliverable electronically by 2008.'

Electronic delivery is defined as delivery through internet protocols and other ICT methods and includes delivery by telephone if the officer receiving the call can access electronic information and/or update records online there and then.