Government Interactions To Be 97% Digital By End Of Next Parliament

Minister for the Cabinet Office Francis Maude has claimed that another 25 exemplars are being considered, bringing the total to 50 by the end of next Parliament.

As part of its transformation programme, the government is building digital by default exemplar services for the top 25 highest transaction public services.

The initial 25 are expected be live by the end of next year, but now it seems more are set to join the process.

Speaking at the Digital Five (D5) launch earlier this week, Maude said Whitehall is currently looking at ways to make almost all government services digital.

D5 is a group of five nations, the UK, Israel, New Zealand, South Korea and Estonia, which claim to be the most digitally advanced in the world.

As well as stating that new exemplars are on the way, Maude noted other ways the government is intending to progress digitally in the future.

“We want to move form just digitising public services to a ‘government as a platform’ model. This has already been pioneered by GOV.UK Verify, which allows people to identify themselves online,” he claimed.

“Over the coming years we will introduce a series of common platforms which will be used across Departments, including for appointments booking and to process payments.

“We also want you to be able to track your progress through an online service, just as you can follow a package that is being delivered to your address,” he added.

Ensuring Greater Digital Inclusion

The idea of public services being predominantly online has sparked some concern among citizens as this will exclude people who don’t have the skills required to operate the Internet, but Maude chose to address this issue.

“Our aim is simple: everything that can be online should be online –and we want to make our online services so easy and convenient that people choose to use them,” the Minister claimed.

“We want to help more people go online so they can use them. Our aim is that all those who can go online are online by 2020.

“For those who cannot, there will always be an assisted digital option available,” he added.

Bring Digital Into Education

Digital Economy Minister Ed Vaizey expanded upon what government is doing to increase digital inclusion at the D5 Summit.

“Ensuring that our people and businesses have world-class digital skills so they can compete in the economy of the future is a key part of our long-term economic plan to back business, create jobs and secure a brighter future for Britain,” Vaizey claimed.

“ We have already put coding into the school curriculum and our rollout of superfast broadband, back by over £1bn government investment in our digital infrastructure, has now passed more than 1.5 million homes and businesses and is reaching 40,000 more each week,” he added.

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