UK ‘leads the way in Government use of the web’, Minister tells EU leaders :: PublicTechnology.net :: e-Government & public sector IT news + job vacancies:

Cabinet Office Minister Angela Smith has told a major European conference that Britain's public sector is leading the world in its use of technology.

Speaking ahead of the fifth European Ministerial E-Government Meeting in Malmo, Sweden, Cabinet Office Minister Angela Smith said: “With a huge range of public services available online, pioneering work taking place to free-up data and the world's first plan to systematically cut the carbon emissions of government IT systems, Britain is leading the way in E-Government.

"More than 75 per cent of driving licence applications are now made online, £140 billion of benefits payments are delivered electronically each year, and hundreds of millions of X-Rays, scans and other medical images have been digitised, allowing doctors and nurses to spend less time waiting for files and more time treating patients. 20 million people renew their car tax online each year, and we're cutting the time it takes to apply for free school meals from six weeks to four hours.

"We're using technology to make public services smarter, cheaper and greener, allowing us to do more with less and design services around the user, not the government.

"This meeting gives me the opportunity to share our successes with my European counterparts and also learn from their experiences. By working together we can ensure everyone in Britain and the rest of Europe has access to the best possible public services, both online and off."

While at the meeting, which takes place every other year and is hosted by the country holding the presidency of the European Union, the Minister signed a declaration setting out goals and objectives for Europe-wide IT issues over the next five years.

The declaration, which has been negotiated by the Cabinet Office, includes commitments to putting open-source solutions on an equal footing when it comes to awarding government contracts, and to making non-personal government data publicly available for reuse. Both policies have already been adopted by the UK Government.

Other themes of the declaration include reduced administrative burdens and energy consumption, closer co-operation and increased innovation, sharing of experience, and data protection and privacy.

Angela Smith also visited the three British finalists in the pan-European E-Government Awards. Teams of public servants from Kent, Liverpool and Scotland have been identified as among the best in Europe and were at the conference to share their expertise with counterparts from overseas.