We’ve been e-governing for 10 years now. Time, I thought, for a brief look back. Rather than publish here, Public Sector Forums have been kind enough to post for me. Visit their site and take a look – you’ll need to register if you’re not already a member (but that’s a good thing, there’s lots of other stuff to look at – and I’d especially recommend a quick read of Ian Cuddy’s look back at 2005).
A 10 year retrospective
In your piece, you state that most people still go to the post office to buy new tax discs. I didn\’t. In fact, I didn\’t last year either. I purchased mine on-line, having been prompted to by the renewal notice. It was easy, quick and my tax disc turned up a couple of days later. Am I alone?
You might be alone … I didn\’t know you could get a tax disc online, but you\’re right. Here\’s the link from direct.govhttp://www.direct.gov.uk/Diol1/DoItOnline/DoItOnlineArticles/fs/en?CONTENT_ID=10021414&chk=EzpJ7%2BIt turns out that I fail most of not all of the conditions that would allow me to buy online but maybe next year they\’ll send me the form.But therein lies my point. Every year I buy insurance for my car – I have to (well, I don\’t have to, but if I\’m not paying insurance then I\’m probably not paying for a tax disc either) by law. So why isn\’t the insurance and tax disc process closely coupled – one transaction rather than two? Why should the DVLA folks need to send me a form? That said, I applaud DVLA for getting to this stage, it looks like a step forward – but it incrementally changes the existing process rather than throwing it away and starting from a new point, as the transformational government agenda might require.
here\’s a new idea,http://news.zdnet.co.uk/0,39020330,39246799,00.htm an ePod for everyone.