Chancellor Gordon Brown is relying on IT to help deliver
billions of pounds of savings for front-line services.
In his three-year Spending Review delivered on Monday, Brown
said that the government's £6bn investment in IT would allow the
public sector to cut 84,000 jobs. By 2008 this should lead to
£21.5bn savings a year.
The programme is in line with the efficiency review conducted by
Sir Peter Gershon, the former chief of the Office of Government
Commerce, which was published on Monday.
Gershon emphasised the need for Whitehall, local councils and
the NHS to get value from the e-government investment they have
already made. He called for the Treasury and Cabinet Office
e-government Unit to produce a "benchmark standard" for
e-government across the rest of Whitehall.
Eric Woods, practice director for analyst group Ovum's public
sector service said, "The next few years will see unprecedented
scrutiny of the real benefits of IT investments in the NHS,
Criminal Justice system, and new HM Revenue and Customs.
"Our main concern is that the emphasis may be too much on
potential savings and not enough on the transformative power of IT
investment when coupled with a business change programme."
The targets set by Brown include £75m savings at the Department
for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs delivered in part by
streamlining back-office functions and the greater use of online
services.
The Department for Transport is expected to deliver £785m
savings in part through improved procurement and back office
rationalisation. While funds have been set aside for the Ministry
of Defence to modernise logistics and business information
systems.
There was little other extra money for IT, although the Cabinet
Office is doubling its £20m contribution towards local authority
spending on business resilience from 2005-6 and the police have
been promised extra funds to deliver the IT systems called for in
the Bichard Inquiry.