Do-it-online

The term e-Government is used to cover a whole range of different digital interactions with Government services or processes from information provision and service transactions through to participation and political engagement. This chapter is concerned with the online transactions offered by Directgov and defines the term ‘online transaction’ as the ability to perform all aspects of a routine transaction through to completion online.

Directgov describes itself as a ‘superstore’³² and a whole section of the website is branded ‘do-it-online’³³. As such, consumers could reasonably expect to complete a range of relevant transactions on the website. In fact, very few experiences begin and end in ‘the superstore’. Directgov, instead, mostly points users to information that will lead them to transactions, rather than actually enabling transactions to happen. The website says consumers can ‘download forms, make applications online and get expert advice’³⁴ but, in reality, there is a lot of form
downloading, and not a great deal of opportunities to make online applications. The transactions described in the ‘do-it-online’ pages fall into six categories:

1. Receive advice, for example, what to do if you think your child is on drugs
2. Research tailored information, for example, find a school
3. Complaining about a service, for example, make a complaint about a pension provider
4. Report something from a community, for example, a suspected benefit cheat
5. Apply and register for help, for example, maternity costs
6. Make a payment, for example, pay a court fine

The first two of the above categories do deliver comprehensive online services. They are relatively straightforward in that they simply provide information. However, a closer look at the remaining four types of transactions reveals they only partially provide a comprehensive online service in that they require a form to be downloaded, printed, filled in and sent off by post, or they require a password to come by post before the service can be accessed.

The table below is a short analysis of what is available in these four categories:

Most of these things listed in the ‘money, tax and benefits’ section are forms that need to be printed off and sent away with only a handful referring to the Department for Work and Pension’s e-service where benefits and allowances can be applied and claimed for online. For some of the motoring forms, the transaction provided is limited to just searching for a form.

The list below shows the things that a consumer is able to fully complete online via the Directgov service:

Services that require a Government Gateway password present obstacles, as each transaction requires a different password. So, if a consumer registers to apply for a care grant, a separate password is needed to apply for attendance allowance. The passwords are sent by post once registration is completed, which further slows down the process.

This list of fully online services does not come across as a coherent set built around consumers’ real priorities. For instance, it’s possible to buy a personalised car number plate but not to track a school application. Instead, this list comprises functions that the Government is able to provide easily and consumers’ requirements have not been accounted for. It suggests the pressure of delivering Directgov’s target of amalgamating websites has compromised an assessment of what consumers would reasonably expect to be able to do on a public service website.

Even this brief probe into this part of the website illustrates how difficult it is to determine what is actually available to do in full online. Consumers must be disappointed to find that at the ‘superstore’ promised in Directgov’s online advertisement, you can only take a few items to the checkout.

32. Visit these pages for the online advert: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/SiteInformation/DG_4004497
33. http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Diol1/DoItOnline/index.htm
34. See online advert above