Cabinet-level minister a must for modern e-government

In a report released yesterday, it has renewed calls for a cabinet-level post to be created "with no other distracting or conflicting roles".

Currently the responsibility for rolling out e-government is split between Cabinet Office minister Ian McCartney, e-envoy Andrew Pinder and DTI minister Patricia Hewitt, all of whom have other responsibilities vying for their time.

Ian Bruce, Tory MP and EURIM member, said: "We need a cabinet-level minister responsible for e-government administration. Someone that has the explicit backing of the Prime Minister and can work across departments, so people know that when he's speaking, he's speaking for the Prime Minister and they need to take notice."

However, both Tory and Labour Party members of EURIM, who attended the launch of the paper yesterday, were unable to confirm whether the new role would be in their parties' manifestos for the coming election.

The paper will be considered by MPs from both sides of the House.

EURIM also feels that the role of e-envoy as currently defined is too concentrated on e-government, and should be more focused on promoting the UK as a hotbed for ebusiness both at home and abroad.

It's worried that without these changes the government target of getting all government services online by 2005 will be missed, or will be met but with low-quality and superficial services.

Philip Virgo, secretary general of EURIM, said government must work hard to ensure services are good enough. "It is not a matter of whether nominal targets are met," he said, "but whether what is provided is being refined to relate to what people actually want to do online."

EURIM is a lobbying group, consisting of industry vendors, user groups and MPs, which influences government policy through building cross-party consensus.