Exploring E-Government in the UK: Challenges, Issues and Complexities

Abstract

Information and communication technology facilities offered by the Internet
have encouraged not only business enterprises, but also governments around
the globe to invest significantly into electronic service delivery in the form of
e-government. While the numbers of the different national e-government
initiatives have rapidly increased in the last three years, the success of these
will largely depend on whether the services they offer will be used by the
citizens of the respective countries. Initial efforts to deploy e-government in
the UK suggest that many local boroughs are lagging behind the national
expectations for e-government due to various social and technical challenges.
This paper will identify and examine the impact of these challenges on realising
e-government through the results of an exploratory study in one of the largest
local boroughs (Hillingdon-London) in the UK. The results of this study found
that from a social perspective, while issues such as lack of awareness, trust,
language barriers and lack of access to the Internet were impeding citizens
from using e-government services, financial and political constraints were
thwarting the government from fully implementing the concept. These social
challenges are further compounded by technical complexities such as the
need to integrate processes and technology across different government
agencies to facilitate the efficient and effective delivery of e-services.