Is UK egovernment doing something right for once?

Launched in Mexico City yesterday, a new report from the UN has reviewed egovernment worldwide - and discovered, surprisingly, that Britain is the top dog in the world of online services.

The report, entitled World Public Sector Report 2003 – E-government at the Crossroads, shows the findings of research into how well global governments are using the internet to keep their citizens up to date with their rights and services.

The UK's pole position in egovernment only goes as far as 'e-participation': getting citizens involved in egovernment. When it comes to 'e-readiness' – providing services and products online as well as having the infrastructure and education to support it, the UK is lagging behind the rest of the world, scraping in at just fifth place, behind nations including Sweden and Denmark.

The study found that from all the countries within the UN, an impressive 91 per cent were already using the internet to interact in some way with their citizens, such as offering policy discussions or opportunities to email officials, although most focused just on using providing information not two-way services.

Some unexpected countries are putting in an impressive showing in the egovernment stakes, with Chile, Estonia and the Philippines coming in the top ten for e-participation, although the e-readiness list was dominated by the tech's usual suspects such as Germany and the US.

The main reason why more governments aren't putting themselves online is fear of going overboard on egovernment spending and finding themselves stuck with an inefficient or expensive web white elephant, said the report, recommending controlled spending for all things electronic.

Jose Antonio Ocampo, UN Under-Secretary-General for economic and social affairs, said at the launching of the report: "Many governments turn to internet-based services as a way to cut red tape, or to spread digital infrastructure, but we also see the internet as a means of advancing and consolidating transparency and democracy into the overall practice of public administration. For that reason, we attach great importance to the category of 'e-participation' in our global survey and analysis."

However, despite the government's Herculean efforts to get services online by the all important 2005 deadline, it seems they may well be wasting their time. The UN has discovered that just one in five people with web access will actually use any government services online.