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e-Government

This is my first speech in Westminster Hall, so I am not used to it yet. I hope hon. Members appreciate that and forgive me if I have any minor lapses. I am pleased that the debate is being held because the subject is important and will grow in importance. In my constituency, and throughout all constituencies, groups of people could easily get left behind in this great movement. They are on lower incomes and from what we traditionally call working-class backgrounds. I want to concentrate on those people in particular, as well as making some general remarks. I will give examples from my constituency of when e-Government—in particular, when it involves local and national Government coming together—would be helpful. I hope that it will be used in the near, rather than the distant, future. It is a necessary step that we are taking to put every citizen at the heart of government. I completely agree with my hon. Friend the Member for Ellesmere Port and Neston (Andrew Miller) that government is difficult for people to understand—it is difficult for us new Members to understand, let alone our constituents. As he rightly said, we all know from the inquiries we receive that people misunderstand what is involved in local and national Government. My post bag is always full of education questions and housing problem, which I take up cheerfully on behalf of my constituents. However, that demonstrates a misunderstanding of what we do here and what Swindon borough council does. We should not underestimate the empowerment that e-Government could provide to the individual, to us in our jobs in Westminster, and to councillors in their jobs in Swindon and other areas. However, we have to overcome some necessary hurdles if e-Government is to close, rather than widen, the gap between the empowered and the powerless in society. I represent South Swindon, which is well known as a hub of expertise in technology. I hope the Minister agrees that British-based firms are best placed to help us provide solutions in e-Government. I want to highlight the value of e-Government and the hurdles that we must overcome, and to urge the Government to procure more IT solutions from British businesses. Research has revealed that the UK is increasingly becoming a digital nation. The number of British households with access to the internet has increased more than fivefold since 1998. The rate of that increase is an indicator of the growing importance of the technology. In the fourth quarter of 2004, more than half of British homes were connected to the internet. In 1998, the figure stood at just under one in 10. Despite making strides in the number of people online, there are the problems of the socially excluded and of whether, by increasing the emphasis on the internet, we are not increasing the disempowerment of those who do not have access to it. We must endeavour not to create a two-tier system, with a technology-poor underclass. A study published last month for the Improvement and Development Agency—IDeA—warned that e-Government at both national and local level largely ignores the needs of hard-to-reach individuals and is failing to promote social inclusion adequately. I think e-Government could help with a constituency problem that worries me. The Minister will no doubt be aware that one of the main indicators of social deprivation is the number of children on free school meals. Crucially, that is used to determine the level of funding that local authorities and schools receive. It also triggers many other funding streams and is one of the factors in a school's PANDA—that is not an animal that is under threat; it stands for performance and data analysis in schools. A school's PANDA is crucial. It is what its funding is based on and what it is judged on when it has inspections. It provides an indication of how well schools are doing in the league tables, how good their GCSE results are and so on. In my constituency, as in those of other hon. Members, the local authority and schools quite rightly lobby me constantly about funding. Swindon is a low-funded local authority. It is in the bottom 40. We are all concerned to ensure that we continue to increase school funding, and not just the capital amounts, but the baseline funding too. I have explained to my local authority that another way of getting funding is to up the figure for children on free school meals, if it needs to review that. However, there is a difficulty with that. Churchfields school in my constituency is for 11 to 16-year-olds. I ought to declare that I am a governor. The head teacher, Mr. Flavin, investigated the free school meals idea, as I suggested. Much to his dismay, he discovered that parents must fill in a complex form to qualify for them. As we know, many parents who come from deprived social backgrounds are either not willing or not able to do so, particularly those who have English as a second language. They must fill in a complex form and physically take it and their income support book across Swindon to Sandford house, which is one of the council's buildings. It can then take up to six months to process the application. It is no wonder that of the 350 parents—parents of one third of the roll—that Churchfields has worked out are eligible for free school meals, only 133 have filled in the form. The school plans to take action. It is thinking about sending teachers and staff to homes to help the parents fill in the forms and also to tell them that they do not have to take up the school meal if they do not want to, but that it would help with funding. I do not know whether those plans have been completely formulated. The school is seriously disadvantaged. It is not judged in the way that it should be—on its results—and it receives less funding, as does my local authority. How much easier it would be for the teachers, the school, the parents and the children if there were an e-Government system that enabled the form to be filled in online, the council to receive it immediately and action to be taken immediately. After all, that funding does not come out of the local authority's pocket but straight from the Government. Of course, we may have a problem later if more children are on free school meals and the funding increases, but I am sure that we will be able to find a solution to it. We must consider that type of problem and think about how we can use technology to offer a solution to the schools and to the children in my constituency and throughout the country.