Fishing licence process boosts GOV.UK Notify
The Government’s GOV.UK Notify platform has received a boost from the Environment Agency with a report that it is now being used in sending up to 40,000 fishing licences per day.
The agency said the notification message platform, which went live in March, was chosen as a way of responding to big seasonal changes in demand. It proved cheaper than any alternatives, provided the means to send notifications by text message or email, and was easy to integrate with the agency’s systems.
It is being used to tell applicants their licence number and to confirm their purchase, which gives them permission to begin fishing immediately.
Scottish local gov digital gets new website
The Digital Office of Scottish Local Government has stepped up its operations with the launch of a new website.
Chief technology officer Colin Birchenall said the site will act as a portal for the activities of the organisation, which was set up last year to support the digital efforts of local authorities in Scotland.
He said: “We look forward to sharing our journey as we work to join up the digital dots across Scotland’s councils.”
CCS wins prompt payment promise from big suppliers
The Crown Commercial Service has won an undertaking from 32 of government’s largest private sector suppliers that they will pay up on 95% of their invoices within 60 days and work towards 30 days as the norm.
The success in getting the companies to sign up the strengthened Prompt Payment Code is seen as an important step in supporting the cash flow of small businesses. It is estimated that small and medium sized enterprises in the UK are collectively owed more than £26 billion in overdue payments.
The signatories to the code are major strategic suppliers who typically have contracts across government of more than £100 million. Together they account for around 40% of government procurement spend.
Image by Stuart Brabbs, CC BY-SA 2.0 through Wikimedia
