Memorandum by the Cabinet Office
THE e-GOVERNMENT GROUP, OFFICE OF THE e-ENVOY
1. This memorandum outlines developments
in the Office of the e-Envoy since the publication of e-government:
A strategic framework for public services in the Information Age
in April 2000. Twelve copies of e-government have been
sent to the Committee with this memorandum.
BACKGROUND
2. The September 1999 report from the Cabinet
Office's Performance and Innovation Unit, "ecommerce@its.best.uk"
was the catalyst for the creation of the e-Envoy post. From the
beginning it was envisaged that the e-Envoy would play a dual
role, aiming to make the UK the best place in the world for e-commerce
by 2002, and driving towards the goal of making all government
services available electronically (initially by 2008, subsequently
brought forward to 2005). To this latter end, the Central IT Unit
was absorbed into the Office of the e-Envoy in October 2000—including
its remit to carry forward the information age work arising from
the Modernising Government White Paper.
MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE
3. The Office of the e-Envoy is divided
in to three Groups: e-Commerce, e-Government and e-Communications.
Ann Steward is the Director of the e-Government Group, which is
tasked with making the UK Government a global exemplar in its
use of the new technologies by:
— reviewing and developing the strategic
framework for e-government;
— working closely with central and
local government and the devolved administrations on the development
and implementation of their e-business strategies;
— monitoring the Government's targets
for electronic service availability, take-up and quality;
— setting technical standards for the
government's online services;
— overseeing central IT projects, like
the UK online portal and government gateway;
— reviewing the effectiveness of, and
learning from, significant public sector IT projects.
4. It should be noted that the Office of
the e-Envoy is working closely with the new Office of Government
Commerce on the implementation of the last function. Copies of
Successful IT: Modernising Government in Action, from which
this function is derived, have been sent to the Committee with
this memorandum.
5. It should also be noted that the Performance
and Innovation Unit published a report entitled e.gov—Electronic
Government Services for the 21st Century in September 2000.
All the recommendations in this report have been accepted by the
Government.
They call for action by departments and agencies
across the public sector. However, the e-Government Minister Ian
McCartney, supported by the e-Government group, will be overall
champion of the report's recommendations across Government.
6. Finally, the Knowledge Network project
is owned and administered by the Centre for Management and Policy
studies, although there is close co-operation with the e-Government
Group's work on technical and data standards.
| 
