E-minister Douglas Alexander has denied the government is
trapped in a "dotcom boom" timewarp after he promised MPs it would
meet its target to have all public services online by
2005.
He told the Commons, "We are committed to ensuring that central
government services are made available electronically by 2005 and
that key services achieve high levels of use.
"The latest figures obtained during quarter four of 2002 show that
63% of services were e-enabled. Departments continue to work to
meet the 2005 target."
But Tory MP George Osborne told Alexander, "In a recent written
answer, the government was unable to tell me how much it had spent
on websites in the past four years, yet the National Audit Office
estimates the figure to be £1bn. The government appears to be the
last organisation still living in the dotcom boom."
Alexander replied, "I simply do not recognise that description. To
take a single example, about 500,000 visits to NHS Direct Online
took place last month.
"That is a perfect example of how the government is modernising
public services and using new technology to find challenging new
solutions to meet the needs of the British public."
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