E-envoy role creates government rift

According to sources close to the situation, the office of the e-envoy, which is under the aegis of the Cabinet Office, is unhappy about plans to restrict the scope of the job to implementing e-government intiatives.

The original description of the role of the e-envoy was laid out in policy white papers, and had placed a greater emphasis on the need to evangelise technology to the private sector.

Last month silicon.com revealed that e-minister Patricia Hewitt believes the UK private sector has already embraced the ecommerce message. She now thinks the e-envoy should primarily be concerned with modernising government.

In an exclusive interview with silicon.com, she said: "When we originally conceived the post a lot of British companies hadn't taken up the challenge of ecommerce and boardrooms just weren't focused on the issues at all."

Jeremy Ward, formerly second in command of the e-envoy team, explained the current team's likely reaction to Hewitt's statement.

He said: "In my position as an ex-member of the office of the e-envoy, the view from the team certainly seems to be one of disappointment at the shift."

Privately, sources are more damning. One speaks of members of the Cabinet Office team having the rug pulled from under them by the change in emphasis.

Ward added: "If the e-envoy is merely responsible for looking after e-government, then we effectively lose the concept of an e-envoy as had been set out in the ecommerce@itsbest.uk paper and in the UK Online framework. This is a change of policy by the government and should be regarded as such."

Ward was partly responsible for writing the ecommerce@itsbest.uk white paper which is the blueprint for government ecommerce policy.

He added: "The e-envoy has to be independent to be taken seriously by both industry and the e-excluded. If he or she just looks after e-government then they will be seen as bound up in government policy."

Today the government admitted the shift in focus, although it denied the role had fundamentally changed.

A Cabinet Office spokesman said: "The role and the remit of the e-envoy is the same. However, priorities do change, and the environment we work in has changed, and the team has changed to take account of that."