Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Maude of Horsham and Sheryll Murray

Wednesday 19th November 2014 Commons Chamber

[Sheryll Murray (South East Cornwall) (Con)]

1. What recent progress the Government Digital Service has made on moving public services online.

[The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (Mr Francis Maude)]

We have designed and created the award-winning and world-leading gov.uk, the central web domain for Government information. We are redesigning 25 major Government services to make them simpler, clearer and faster to use. That will not only provide savings to the taxpayer, but improve delivery for the public, focused on user need, not Government convenience.

[Sheryll Murray]

What steps is my right hon. Friend taking to make sure that individuals who are not digitised, many of whom live in rural constituencies such as mine, are not disadvantaged if they cannot access digitised public services or can do so only at low speeds?

[Mr Maude]

My hon. Friend makes an important point. When, on the recommendation of Baroness Lane-Fox, we adopted the digital-by-default approach—if it can be done online, it should be done only online—we stressed that there must be an assisted digital alternative for those who are not online, and we will ensure that that is the case.