11/3/2010	Lack of address register a national scandal, say government advisers
	The development of a freely available national address register is "long overdue", the government's official advisers on public sector information said this week. In its response to the consultation on the future of Ordnance Survey (OS) the Advisory Panel on Public Sector Information says, "It is a national scandal that we do not have a definitive single National Address Register when most of the components have long resided in the public sector."
11/3/2010	LGA proposes five-point plan to help reduce burden of data collection and bureaucracy, which is putting children at risk.
	Child safety is being put at risk as too much time is spent recording identical information, claims the LGA. It maintains that all staff involved in child protection should record information in the same way, using the Common Assessment Framework.
11/3/2010	Forget the traditional polling booth; voters want the chance to vote online
	More than three quarters of electors - 77% - would vote on the internet if they could, finds new research.
10/3/2010	After eight years, mass media wakes up to electronic health records
	Critics of the London bias of the national media will have plenty of ammunition with the headlines being given to the NHS summary care record this week. The British Medical Association's grumbles about the way in which the record is being deployed featured prominently in today's Radio 4 Today programme and lead the Daily Telegraph.
10/3/2010	More data needed to boost people power
	The Audit Commission has published a discussion paper on how information on the web can empower the public.
10/3/2010	Dog Bytes
	When it comes to dangerous dogs, anything a flagship Tory council in London can do is good enough for everybody else, it seems.
10/3/2010	BMA calls for roll out of electronic patient records to be suspended
	The BMA has written to the government calling for a suspension of the programme to upload summaries of patients' medical records in England to a national database.
10/3/2010	Digital inclusion takes centre stage
	A free software widget to allow people to search the web for information on public services in their area is to be launched today by the Directgov website. The Directgov team is taking the opportunity to use what may be the last big public showing for the highest profile IT-related programme of Gordon Brown's government, the digital inclusion drive.
08/3/2010	Cameron offers two-tier transparency
	Local authorities will have to operate to a higher standard of transparency than other parts of government in the Conservatives' proposed "post-bureaucratic age", Tory leader, David Cameron, has revealed. Under a Cameron administration, government bodies as a whole would have to publish online every item of spending over £25,000 - however local councils would be "asked" to publish everything over £500.
05/3/2010	Spy chip in the bin or rewards for rubbish?
	Claims that a big leap in the number of microchips in waste bins is proof of "spying" were dismissed as rubbish by the government.
04/3/2010	Poor communications make young quit the countryside
	Rural local authorities are facing long term depopulation as the young quit the countryside because of poor telecommunications.
03/3/2010	Tories accuse government of handcuffing health service computer contracts
	Shadow health minister, Stephen O'Brien, has challenged Labour to come clean about attempts to lock an incoming government into wasteful NHS IT contracts.
03/3/2010	Council uses web technology to consult residents on cuts
	Northamptonshire County Council is using web-technology to engage people in cost-cutting decision making.
02/3/2010	HP sees opportunities in squeezed local government
	One of the biggest names in government IT outsourcing is contemplating returning to the local government scene under its new ownership. EDS, absorbed into HP following a $14bn merger two years ago, is on the lookout for opportunities in providing standard services to the sector, Craig Wilson, managing director, HP Enterprise, said last week.
02/3/2010	New campaign to get excluded online
	Older people and the less well-off are to be the target of a campaign to get 7.5 million new internet users online by 2014.
02/3/2010	Bobbies on the beat, new technology and online voting to tackle crime
	The Home Office has promised that in the latest crackdown against crime the police and community support officers (PCSOs) will spend more time walking around communities rather than sitting in offices filling out forms.
02/3/2010	Slightly Better Connected: annual Socitm survey paints a gloomy picture
	Five years on from the rush to make public services available online, the development of local authority websites has run out of steam. The latest instalment of an authoritative annual survey, the Better Connected report, shows "little evidence that councils have invested in their sites over the last 12 months" to enable self-service government.
01/3/2010	Government IT services at risk if civil servants strike
	Jobcentre staff, tax workers, coastguards, border agency officials, courts staff and driving test examiners are set to go on strike next week.
01/3/2010	Threats to jobs points to increased use of joint working and shared services
	The government says that a BBC Survey forecasting at least 25,000 council jobs will be under threat in England in the next three to five years reinforces its push for councils, health, the police and the voluntary sector to share resources like IT, HR and finance rather than cut front line services.
25/2/2010	New research reveals online government information is a hit with UK consumers
	The government's push to transfer local and central government information online is finding favour with the UK's consumers but the Government Gateway is barely open.
25/2/2010	Staff at child maintenance agency shun computers and turn to pen and paper
	Computers keyboards are being pushed to one side as staff at the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission turn to pen and paper to complete claims that the IT system cannot cope with.
24/2/2010	Address database to roll to census day - and then be wiped
	Details have emerged of efforts by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to create a comprehensive database of addresses for use in the 2011 census. The aim is to build a list that is at least 99% complete from existing databases, update it continuously until census day in March 2011 - and then to discontinue the work.
24/2/2010	Silence is golden - and ePetitions are set for trial post election
	There were five shouts of "Object" on a frenetic night of navel-gazing in the Commons - but MPs were silent on the question of e-petitions. For supporters of the idea, silence truly was golden, because it commits parliament to a trial scheme when it reconvenes after the looming general election.
23/2/2010	Charge on fixed telephone lines would widen digital divide
	Government plans to slap a 50p-a-month tax on all fixed line telephones to fund superfast broadband have been damned by a cross-party committee of MPs.
22/2/2010	Government's drive to open up official, non-personal, local data will create benefits
	The drive to free up official data on local services, announced as part of the launch of the government website data.gov.uk, has the potential to create benefits for citizens and businesses and improve efficiencies in the public sector, the Local Government Association and Socitm said today.
22/2/2010	Boom time for IT suppliers turns to bust as election looms
	The public sector has been the lifebuoy of the UK software and IT services industries for the past decade, with public sector IT contracts exceeding £10.9bn in 2009. But with cuts expected under both the existing Labour government or a potential Conservative one, the public sector IT boom is at an end.
19/2/2010	Regional fire and rescue centres in danger of being snuffed out
	The government's troubled attempts to upgrade fire and rescue services for modern terror emergencies are about to be extinguished, it seems.
18/2/2010	Care at home means greater use of technology
	Councils facing the challenge of an ageing population as public spending reduces should consider turning to technology to cut costs.
16/2/2010	DWP orders 140,000 desktop devices - but keeps quiet about the cost
	Fujitsu has beaten Cap Gemini and HP Enterprise Systems to one of the largest single hardware contracts ever placed by the latest public sector.
16/2/2010	e-Petitions go to debate
	Supporters of plans to allow the public to e-petition parliament for change are biting their nails ahead of a key debate next week. The long-stalled idea - it is two years since Gordon Brown was first asked to give the go-ahead - will finally be settled next Monday (23rd). Or will it?
15/2/2010	ICT can deliver savings even as public sector budgets fall
	In the face of inevitable cost and job cuts across the public sector, Socitm is disappointed that the new Government ICT Strategy focuses on reducing technology costs – arguing that much higher savings are achievable through better ICT deployment.
12/2/2010	Cost of government website revamps rises to £10m
	Government departments have spent at least £10 million on website redesigns and upgrades over the last two and a half years - more than double the amount previously thought, according to new figures.
12/2/2010	Cambridge tries to put a lid on 'iPad perk' stories
	As a topical hot-button tabloid news story, it had everything but a footballer's wife. National and regional papers alike splashed the news that Cambridge City council had earmarked nearly £30,000 to provide "lucky councillors" with their own Apple iPads devices.
11/2/2010	Cameron pledges to publish contracts in full
	Public bodies and their IT contractors are nervously digesting Conservative leader David Cameron's pledge to publish in full all government contracts worth more than £25,000 should it win the election. The main speculation is whether Labour will try to match - or trump - the promise in its manifesto.
10/2/2010	Digital Citizens want to engage with politicians - passive democracy is not enough
	People want online tools which allow them to participate and engage with politicians rather than having a passive, broadcast-only relationship with them, says the Hansard Society. The internet has made it easier for Britons online to take part in civic and political activities and half of them prefer to use the internet to take part in democratic life.
10/2/2010	Council-run online TV station to be scrapped
	Kent County Council's internet TV station, Kent TV, that has had more than £1.8m spent on it since its launch is to be closed next month. The council says the channel was always earmarked for closure in March.
09/2/2010	NHS steps closer to commercial online health records
	Microsoft has taken a significant step towards launching its HealthVault personal electronic health record system in the UK. The company has announced the first NHS customer for its Amalga data aggregation platform, a key component of HealthVault in the US.
08/2/2010	Western EU governments set to increase spend on technology
	Continued demand for technology to support administrative and tax and revenue collection and management functions could push government IT spend across western Europe to $68.6bn by 2013, says IDC.
08/2/2010	Britain Works in Sunderland
	Sunderland has won £10m of training vouchers for its citizens in Microsoft's Britain Works Challenge. Barnsley and Milton Keynes came second and third in the competition to devise effective programmes to address unemployment and availability of digital skills in the local community.
05/2/2010	Orphans of the Digital Economy Bill
	Two barriers stand in the way of new laws to make it easier for museums and libraries to unlock their treasures digitally, it appears - the House of Lords and the fast-approaching general election.
03/2/2010	CBI calls for smart innovation in healthcare
	Making better use of technology, including 'telecare' and 'telehealth', would make the health service smarter and save money.
02/2/2010	To Arms and to Technology
	The election battle cry rings out, says Helen Olsen in her comment in the Jan/Feb issue of LGITU magazine.
02/2/2010	Local Government IT in Use - January/February 2010 issue
	The January/February issue of LGITU is now available on UKauthorITy.com. View an electronic e-book version, read individual features/sections in pdf or download the entire magazine as a pdf.
29/1/2010	ICT strategy brings local government under Cabinet Office wing
	Whitehall measures to reduce the toll of public sector IT disasters will apply to the 'wider public sector' from 2012, according to the final version of the 10-year government ICT strategy published this week.
28/1/2010	Berners-Lee takes on Whitehall Windows
	The government's 'make public data public' initiative was born in a lunch discussion between Gordon Brown and Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the world-wide web, according to an interview published today. Prospect magazine quotes Berners-Lee as saying that Brown asked him in spring 2009 what the UK should do to make the best use of the internet. "I said, you should put all your government data onto the web. And he said, okay then, let's do it."
27/1/2010	Government opts for new money-saving IT strategy
	Savings to the public purse of £3.2bn annually from 2013/14 are claimed through measures set out in the government's new ICT Strategy.
26/1/2010	Government and ICT could play key role in making travel greener
	Eco-driving, videoconferencing and increased connectivity on public transport are some of the ways information technology could help make travel in the UK more environmentally friendly, finds new research.
25/1/2010	Location Council points towards UK geoportal
	A single source of UK geographic data will be on the web by April 2011, the custodians of Britain's geographic information policy have revealed. The first annual report of the UK Location Council, a body set up to implement the 2008 national location strategy, states that the Geoportal's initial facilities, such as a metadata service, will be provided 'by the end of Q4 2010'.
21/1/2010	Recession bites into local government ICT spend
	Local government IT is under unprecedented pressure to deliver more with less, and tougher times lie ahead.
21/1/2010	Report shows path to protecting frontline services
	A major report on shared services shows one of the key ways that local authorities and other public bodies will be protecting their frontline services during and after the most severe economic recession of modern times.
21/1/2010	Government slips the leash on data
	More than 2500 data sets from across government are, from today, free for reuse by the public from a one-stop data shop, data.gov.uk.
20/1/2010	Local authority and government websites are most difficult to use
	Logging on to a government website is the easy bit; using it is much harder.
03/12/2009	Local Government IT in Use - November/December 2009 issue
	The November/December issue of LGITU is now available on UKauthorITy.com. View an electronic e-book version, read individual features/sections in pdf or download the entire magazine as a pdf.
08/10/2009	Local Government IT in Use - September/October 2009 issue
	The September/October issue of LGITU is now available on UKauthorITy.com - download the entire magazine or read individual features/sections of the publication.
26/8/2009	Local Government IT in Use - July/August 2009 issue
	The July/August issue of LGITU is now available on UKauthorITy.com - download the entire magazine or read individual features/sections of the publication.
06/4/2009	Local Government IT in Use - March/April 2009 issue
	The latest issue of LGITU is now available on UKauthorITy.com - download the entire magazine or read individual features/sections of the publication.
04/2/2009	Local Government IT in Use - January/February 2009 issue
	The latest issue of LGITU is now available on UKauthorITy.com - download the entire magazine or read individual features/sections of the publication.
10/12/2008	Local Government IT in Use - November/December 2008 issue
	The latest issue of LGITU is now available on UKauthorITy.com - download the entire magazine or read individual features/sections of the publication.
08/10/2008	Local Government IT in Use - September/October 2008 issue
	The latest issue of LGITU is now available on UKauthorITy.com - download the entire magazine or read individual features/sections of the publication.