Tony Blair's speech... (part three)

Fifth, as part of the spending review settlement, a total of more than £1billion will be invested in networking our public services. Not only for every primary and secondary school, but broadband connectivity for every GP surgery, every hospital and every Primary Care Trust in the country. It will mean higher bandwidth across the entire criminal justice system and across our network of offices that form the Department for Work and Pensions.

This will create significant public sector demand. That is why Stephen Timms will be establishing a new UK Broadband Taskforce to ensure that procurement has the maximum impact on the availability of broadband across the UK. Over the coming years we expect broadband to reach a wider and wider population, reaching further into rural areas and becoming more and more inclusive.

But for the public services, the real opportunity is to use information technology to help create fundamental improvement in the efficiency, convenience and quality of our services.

That is why we aim to have all government services on-line by 2005, building on best practice such as NHS Direct On-line and the university admissions service. 54% of government services are already online and we expect that figure to rise to around 75% by the end of this year. But we recognise that British businesses and citizens are not yet using government services online in the numbers that match the best in the world.

So our new strategy will focus on driving up access in key categories in the NHS, education, transport, benefits, tax and criminal justice. It will include, for example, services to enable drivers to conduct all their dealings with Governments online including tax discs, vehicle registration and driving licence applications. Transport Direct will provide travel information linking trains, buses and taxi connections to improve public transport as an integrated system. Andrew Pinder will work with departments to agree a strategy for reform, designed to improve the development, delivery and communication of our online services.

Our plan is not only to offer more convenient access to services but also to transform how we organise mainstream delivery. Too many services live in the technological 'dark ages': too few teachers with their own e-mail, an NHS without a single electronic network, no two parts of the criminal justice system operating with the same computer packages.

In July the Government made the largest investment in public services since 1945, but with it promised radical reform in the public sector. Our task is to use the investment to shape public services that meet modern expectations.

Within the spending review settlements, a total of £6bn will be invested in ICT over the coming years.

In the NHS we will be investing to create a national integrated care records service, an electronic prescriptions service, an electronic appointment booking service.

We know what can be achieved. In a Stockport GP practice, the electronic transfer of pathology messages has reduced the average time taken between requesting tests and receiving results from twelve working days to three, with the results automatically incorporated into patient records. In an X-ray clinic in Northampton the introduction of electronic appointment booking has reduced missed appointments from around 9% to zero, saving staff time and reducing waiting times for other patients.

This not only replaces the cumbersome and inefficient paper based approach, but will make it possible for an ambulance crew arriving at the scene of an accident to check a patients electronic health record through a handheld mobile device. It will be possible for a GP to email a prescription directly to a pharmacist who in turn will email the patient to let them know its ready to pick up. And we could eliminate up to 600 million pieces of paper a year and make a GP's handwriting legible for the first time in history!

And we will be investing in ICT infrastructure throughout the criminal justice system. We are building a future where victims of violent crime can participate in a trial remotely through videoconferencing. Where witnesses and police officers will not have to wait around in court for days at a time until they are called to give evidence, but are called by text message or pager. This will free up thousands of police days which are currently wasted waiting to give evidence, saving millions by reducing the need to reconvene trials which are abandoned because witnesses have simply given up waiting and gone home.

Here today we have a gathering of experts. But this issue is for everyone. This is not just about transforming our IT base, it is central to our project to modernise our public services and our economy, to deliver the jobs, the better schools and hospitals that we promised.

The commitment I have described puts the UK at the forefront of ICT investment in public services.

We are taking steps to improve project management within Departments and we are recruiting the best people to run the most challenging projects. I have also asked Peter Gershon to bring forward immediate proposals for further strengthening the successful delivery of IT in Government.

The new technologies redraw the possible: it is up to individuals, businesses and governments to make the possible real and to build a dynamic knowledge economy and society.

We have real competitive advantages: 80% of the world's information is stored in the English language. We have some of the world's leading IT companies. British consumers are among the fastest adopters of new technology in Europe.

Our mission is to unleash this wealth-creating potential throughout the economy. Governments do not create wealth: workers, companies and entrepreneurs do. Our task is to work with businesses to turn our potential competitive advantages into truly competitive products and services.

So these are the challenges for the public sector and business in the UK if we are to become a global knowledge economy leader:

To create an ICT literate workforce through schools, colleges, universities and our adult skills strategy.

To apply ICT systematically and effectively to spur productivity and innovation in businesses and public services.

To tackle the digital divide to ensure that all can contribute to, and benefit from, rising prosperity.

Britain, I believe, has the potential to become a great technological powerhouse, matching the great achievements of the 19th century industrial revolution with a 21st century information revolution. Economic modernisation is the key to social renewal, widely shared prosperity and first class public services.

I end where I began. This is the transforming technology of our age. Its potential is still hugely under-exploited. Its capability to transform our businesses, public services and societies immense. It is the key long-term economic and social challenge. My purpose in addressing you today is to say this Government is absolutely determined to meet the challenge and set our nation on a course to succeed. I ask for your help in doing so.