Directgov 2010 and Beyond: Revolution not Evolution

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Created on Tuesday, 23 November 2010

Today Government has responded to my Directgov strategic review recommendations which argue for the simplification and strengthening of digital government to improve the quality and consequently use of Government channels.  Both my report and the Government’s initial response, argue for a Channel Shift that will increasingly see public services provided digitally ‘by default’.

Shifting 30% of government service delivery contracts to digital channels has the potential to deliver gross annual savings of more than £1.3 billion, rising to £2.2 billion if 50% of contacts shifted to digital.  In line with this move, there will be radical improvement to government Internet services to provide higher quality and more convenient 24/7 services to users.

I believe the Government should take advantage of the more open, agile and cheaper digital technologies to deliver simpler and more effective digital services to users, particularly to disadvantaged groups who are some of the heaviest users of government services.

Summary of My Key Recommendations:

• Make Directgov the government front end for all departments’ transactional online services to citizens and businesses, with the teeth to mandate cross government solutions, set standards and force departments to improve citizens’ experience of key transactions.
• Simplify the user experience of digital public services by making all of government’s transactional services available through Directgov.
• Ensure online government information and services are available wherever people are on the web by opening up applications and services to other organisations
• Appoint a new CEO for Digital in the Cabinet Office to drive change and bring together existing teams working in this area.
• Ask Directgov and Business Link to create a plan of what would be involved to converge the sites into a single domain