Anyone who has ever spent a morning waiting in a queue in a government building can appreciate the difference which information and communication technologies (ICT) could make to their lives.
eGovernment is the use of ICT technologies in public administrations in order to deliver better, more efficient public services and improve the relationship between citizens and their governments. eGovernment is a way for public administrations to become:
- more open and transparent, and to reinforce democratic participation;
- more service-oriented, providing personalised and inclusive services to each citizen;
- productive, delivering maximum value for taxpayers' money.
Europe's Information Society programme advocates the importance of e-Government as a means of achieving world-class public administration in Europe and this is further addressed within the eEurope 2005 Action Plan which encourages the Member States to accelerate the take-up and development of e-Government.
The UK Government has initiated a number of activities to implement eGovernment under the auspices of the e-Government Unit (eGU) of the Cabinet Office. Such activities include the Government Gateway which is a centralised registration service that enables any citizen to sign up for any of the UK Government's services that are available over the Internet. Directgov is the information portal of the UK Government that offers the widest range of government information and services.
These initiatives are supported by appropriate "information access" legislation such as the Freedom of Information Act 2000, the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004, compliance to which can be achieved with the help of DataSmart® suite of products.
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