28 October 2005

The UK is lagging behind Europe in the number of people using online government resources.

According to the European Commission, almost half (45 per cent) of adult Internet users had accessed information from government websites within the first quarter of 2004.

However, in the UK only 31 percent use public authority sites, with just 11 per cent using them to access forms and even less (five per cent) sending back them back via the web.

The statistics have been compiled by Eurostat and are based on surveys across all EU member states.

It forms part of the wider EU initiative to use the Internet to bring information to all citizens.

The "eEurope 2005 Action Plan- an information society for all" aims at encouraging public authorities to create websites as a means to make the provision of information easier and more cost efficient.

The report revealed people in Finland, Denmark and Luxembourg access the web for government information most frequently.

Downloading forms from the websites was most popular in Luxembourg and Spain.

Almost 30 per cent of Internet users in Spain downloaded forms from public body websites, over double the number in the UK.

© Adfero Ltd

Keep up to date with industry and Nomensa news by signing up to Nomensa newsletters.