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e-Government

: My hon. Friend reminds me of one of the difficulties. Social services claims that the Data Protection Act 1998 forbids it from using information that it already has in the system. [Interruption.] I am glad that hon. Members are indicating that that is not so. I shall have conversations with them outside the Chamber to determine whether we can advance this initiative in South Swindon. I was pleased to visit the citizens advice bureau in Swindon during the summer recess. I was impressed with how it uses e-technology to help people quickly and efficiently. It can get everything, including all the briefings, online. Its staff use touch screens. I was most impressed by that and wish that I had such a system for my advice surgeries. We could all give a better response to our constituents in the short time that we have if we had such technology at our fingertips. I would love to access it. Getting broadband and getting into my e-mails was quite difficult during the summer. This place must make some advances if we are to access that technology. More generally, I note that the UK has slipped down a rung in the e-Government league table. I am sorry about that. This year it stood at joint 10th position in the annual rankings, down one place from last year. I am sure that the Minister will pushfor it to go up even higher next year. As he stated, Canada leads the way, followed by the United States. Interestingly, in the US, where one might expect people to be more internet-savvy, four in 10 citizens surveyed by the Pew internet study responded that they would rather use the telephone than the internet to pursue inquiries. So, even in countries where internet sites are most attractive and easy to use, there is still a problem with public trust. There is a great deal of work to do with the most deprived people in my constituency to boost their confidence and trust in IT. Hon. Members raised some interesting points at Question Time yesterday. For example, the Government were urged to intervene to procure more of their IT solutions from British businesses. I wish to associate myself with that. As I said, Swindon has always been at the forefront of e-solutions, with examples such as the Cable and Wireless internet solutions centre and, of course, Intel. We know that the barriers between people and technology can be broken down—that is how we have all ended up using mobile phones. We all remember the ““bricks”” that were first used by builders—so the apocryphal stories went—in the 1980s, but the phones are different now. Swindon businesses have always been at the forefront of the technology, and so they are best placed to break down some of the barriers between people and e-Government. I thank the Minister for trying to get to South Swindon during the summer recess. It could not quite be managed, but my door is always open, as is South Swindon's. I know that the Cabinet Office will be launching a web-based portal to enable innovation by those who want to work with the Government. I will ensure that businesses in my constituency that wish to take part receive details of that. The Government have made a commitment to raising IT standards throughout our schools and that is borne out in Swindon. I take a special interest in education and have made it my business to visit most of the schools in South Swindon. I have seen some wonderful information and communications technology suites during my frequent visits, and I pay tribute to the Government for releasing the funding to ensure that such things are developed. Access to ICT facilities has been improved for pupils, parents and the local community in that way. In Swindon there is an average computer to pupil ratio of approximately 1:8 in primary schools and 1:5 in secondary schools, which is very good. With the IT revolution happening in our education system, and citizenship classes—at last—returning knowledge of government to our schools, perhaps there is an opportunity to combine the two so that the next generation can begin to harness e-Government technology, whatever background they are from. However, I leave hon. Members with the frightening thought that we may all have to take a course in text language to understand the inquiries that come in from our younger constituents.