A Paperless Government in the UK, Waste of Time or Possible Dream?
Paperless? Well, at least for now we're not to sure about it. However, beginning by moving government services to the web cuts paper and saves Pounds, or at least that's what they say. Prime Minister Gordon Brown and WWW creator/founder Sir Tim Berners-Lee are behind the idea. Berners-Lee says:
I don’t want to go to a government office to do a government thing. It should all be online,” he said. “That saves time for people and it saves money for the Government — the processing of a piece of paper and mailing it back costs many times more than it costs to process something electronically. There will come a point where you don’t need all the physical offices any more.”
On Monday the Prime Minister will announce plans that he claims could save billions of pounds over four years by making dealing with the State as easy as internet banking or shopping on Amazon....
The aim is that within a year, everybody in the country should have a personalised website through which they would be able to find out about local services and do business with the Government. A unique identifier will allow citizens to apply for a place for their child at school, book a doctor’s appointment, claim benefits, get a new passport, pay council tax or register a car from their computer at home.
Over the next three years, the secure site will be expanded to allow people to interact with their children’s teachers or ask medical advice from their doctor through a government version of Facebook.
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A report by the accountant PriceWaterhouse Coopers for the Cabinet Office estimated that the Government could save £900 million a year simply by bringing those who don’t have access to the internet online – the total savings would be f
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