The government has announced £10m to fund installation
and running costs of the Government Connect secure extranet (GCSx)
for local authorities.
GCSx is designed to provide secure data transfer between local
authorities and central government – a key part of ministers’
Transformational Government strategy to improve public service
delivery and cut costs through shared services.
The new money from the Department for Communities and Local
Government and the Department for Work and Pensions is aimed at
giving local authorities an incentive to sign up to the extranet
scheme and putting it on a firm footing by March 2008.
It will pay for local councils to receive free connection to
GCSx up to a maximum 2Mbyte line, free use of the GCSx line until
March 2008 or a year from installation – whichever comes first –
and anti-virus e-mail protection for the first 1,000 users per
local authority.
DCLG minister Angela Smith said, “I want to see local
authorities throughout England grasp this chance and engage with
Government Connect.”
The success of the project “relies on everyone working
together”, she added.