Cabinet Office: Facts: Online transactions with government

Facts

Online transactions are cheaper and more convenient than other delivery methods. Some examples of those benefiting are:

Jobseekers: the Department for Work and Pensions delivers 13 million benefit payments each week – more than £100 billion each year – and uses technology to help 4,000 people into jobs each day.
Taxpayers: almost three million people now file their self–assessments tax returns online each year.
Motorists: around four million motorists renew their car tax disc online each year.
NHS users: more than nine million electronic prescriptions have been issued.

In just three years Directgov has built itself into one of the most popular websites in the UK, attracting five million unique users a month.
The Government plans to reduce the number of gov.uk websites run by central government by around 95% from the 950 operating in 2006.

Transport for London has saved 30% on human resources and the NHS has saved 34% on processing financial transactions.

The Government runs the highly successful Government Gateway service which has more than nine million registered users.

IT is the largest profession in the public sector.

Recognising skills problems built up over two decades, the Government IT Profession was created in 2005 to lift standards and the standing of IT Professionals within the public sector. So far more than 7,000 individuals have signed up.
In 2006 a ‘Technology in Business’ strand of immensely popular ‘Civil Service Fast Stream’ was established, while a Government IT Academy now operates in partnership with Oxford University's Said Business School.