UK online services improving

A survey of European online services by Capgemini has ranked the UK fifth in Europe, up from sixth last year.

The annual survey for the European Commission has found that 89 per cent of basic public services in the UK are fully-available online, which the report called a "marked improvement" on 2006.

The UK scored 90 per cent in online sophistication, suggesting the country has moved beyond purely transactional sites to more proactive targeted services. The survey also found little gap in the level of sophistication between services for citizens and those for business. Indeed, at 20 per cent, the UK scored about the EU average for user-centric behaviour.

Graham Colclough, vice president of the global public sector for Capgemini, said: "European governments must stop a gap opening up between the public and the commercial online worlds, and seek to deliver a new 'Gov 2.0' experience; one that attracts and fulfils citizen needs efficiently, consistently, inclusively, and economically - not a simple task I admit!"

And, the UK's national portals DirectGov and Business Link were praised as best practice, helping the country earn a 90 per cent scoring against an EU average of 75 per cent.

The UK also got top marks for its online services for libraries, job searching, education enrolment, building permission and health care. It scored 90 per cent for social services provisions online, but just 60 per cent for statistical data and personal documents, such as passports.

Overall, across the 27 EU member countries as well as Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey, the survey found that online availability for public services had increased from 50 per cent last year to 58 per cent this year.

Austria is the top country, with marks of 100 per cent for all the 20 services measured. But there's a 90 per cent gap between the top of the table and the bottom, Capgemini warned.

Colclough said: "Modest size and central structures have enabled rapid advancement in a number of the (newer) member states, but size isn't everything: we have found there are a number of smaller states, both old and new, that clearly have not embraced eGovernment to the same degree as the broad survey results suggest. There are also a number of previously progressive 'old' countries whose progress has faltered over recent years."

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