Modern e-government demands joined-up information, communication and technology (ICT) systems. The necessary result is interoperable systems working in a seamless and coherent way across the public sector to provide better efficiency and services tailored to the needs of citizens and businesses at a lower cost.

The UK Government has implemented a number of initiatives that drive modernization to achieve this aim, not least of which is the e-Government Interoperability Framework (e-GIF). The e-GIF clearly defines policies and specifications for interoperability, information management and e-services access across government, ensuring connection to external entities (including citizens and businesses) and alignment with global ICT trends.

At the centre of e-GIF is GovTalk (www.govtalk.gov.uk) — an industry-endorsed XML specification for government services. Whilst the use of GovTalk is well established, this paper details novel and innovative projects that leverage XML in the e-Government space and provides insight into some directional strategy that promises to bring more significant, long-term benefits to fruition.

Electronic service delivery offers significant opportunities to meet the needs of citizens by improving access to and interaction between government, citizens and businesses in an inclusive and integrated manner. However, a number of issues must be solved in order to deliver a successful and valuable offering that people will be prepared to trust and use. Key issues include:

To deliver on these goals — so many of which are facilitated by ICT systems — the GovTalk specifications define the interface between the many organizations, business processes and ICT systems across the UK government. Use of GovTalk is essentially mandated for all government systems and services.

The use of GovTalk and other industry accepted open standards (including SOAP and UDDI) allows the connection of best-of-breed players and service providers. Hence, in order to take advantage of the services being provided through UK online (www.ukonline.gov.uk) and the Government Gateway (www.gateway.gov.uk) or other systems which are part of the UK government electronic service delivery targets, ICT systems (including internal and external, new and legacy) must to comply with these specifications.

An overview of the UK's e-government topology — all fundamentally linked by GovTalk — is illustrated below.

Figure 1. 

One of the most effective uses of XML in the UK's e-Government agenda is the ability to deliver services through multiple channels — with a 'channel' defining both traditional (e.g. face-to-face or phone) and electronic (e.g. web-based or software-led) means. The UK government recognises the significance of exploiting new technology to facilitate the delivery of services through multiple channels, both in terms of increasing service access and uptake [OeE02].

The OeE recommends that public sector bodies should consider partnering with intermediaries to create opportunities to open up government and, where applicable, they provide a more appropriate route for delivering improved customer service [OeE02, p.22]. The e-GIF is mandated to also encompass content management, so standard data definitions ensure successful interchange of data into the multiple channels. Successful exploitation of these opportunities allow for citizens to have a choice of device and access-point, which allows for pervasive access to information and services whether at home, work, on the move, or in the community.

The accommodation of multiple service channels also helps take services to the citizen in a context that they want it. This promises better utilisation of the services on offer as well as a more effective user experience. An example of such service delivery is the successful syndication of UK Online content to MSN UK via a Public Service MSN channel. The screenshot below illustrates how MSN integrates content stemming from the government (and possibly private contributors) into a look and feel familiar to MSN users.

Figure 2. 

In addition to content presentation, the syndicated channel can act intelligently to steer people towards the services they want. For example, since May 2002, MSN has been helping the Inland Revenue (IR) raise awareness of its online capabilities in the UK. The aim has been to help change people's behaviour with regard to filling out and completing tax self-assessment online by sending traffic to the Inland Revenue website. The following screenshot is reached after searching (or querying) MSN on "tax return woes". From here the user is directed to the IR's own site to learn more and enrol in Self Assessment if desired.

Figure 3. 

Since inception in May 2002, MSN has "adserved" over 15 million impressions (MSN WebPages that have been branded with the Inland Revenue). The result has been over 180,000 users being successfully driven to the Inland Revenue.

Well specified services and open interfaces also provide the opportunity to create more seamless delivery of government functions through the use of intermediaries and private sector partnerships. To this end, the OeE has recommended that public sector bodies define the standards for interfacing with government services as part of the e-GIF process, to encourage competition and maximise customer choice (OeE02, p.24). The use of XML in this objective thereby seeks to open up government and promote competition in the intermediaries and private e-service provisioning market.

One of the first government services to go online (in March 2001) was the electronic submission of PAYE tax in the UK. Since then, the Inland Revenue has maintained the objective of delivering 100% of services electronically by 2005, primarily to allow customers to access and carry out their key business activities over the Internet. Key to that goal is the requirement to promote take-up for key services (hence drive a return on their investment). In fact, the focus is so strong, that the IR are seeking to make electronic filing mandatory by 2004 for large businesses and 2007 for small businesses. To this end, the Carter study [cart01] recommended (amongst other things) better support services for customers and the introduction of financial incentives to encourage small employers to file their End of Year returns with the Inland Revenue electronically.

Facilitating this, the IR are relying on accredited software partners for integrating the Filing By Internet (FBI) interface into the software packages that run many employer's payroll systems. At present, a range of software and online forms facilitating FBI is available from over 12 accredited Software Suppliers and also from the Inland Revenue (including Sage Software, Paladin Solutions and CINTRA Payroll services). Such software allows the management of payroll as well as completion of the P60 form as well as submission via the internet directly to the Government Gateway.

While enabling the 'customer' is an important step, the enabling of partners is also a critical factor. Initially, there is the specification of the appropriate forms (P11/P60) in the appropriate XML schema and then the necessary wrapping in GovTalk. Technical support services are provided by the IR's Software Development Support (SDS) Team to assist vendors with the testing of software for submission of PAYE forms and returns over the internet. In this case, the IR provides a Third Party Validation Service (TPVS) Site that performs validation on the 'Form' or 'Body' of the submission against the current PAYE Schemas and the business rules. Then the vendor's solution is to be tested against similar services provided for the Gateway Gateway, which focuses on the GovTalk envelope. Once a vendor successfully completes testing, they apply to the IR SDS Team for formal recognition.

Approximately eight million UK citizens are required to submit tax returns every year. Again, to drive take up and further improve the experience of the citizen, the Inland Revenue is committed to providing access to the service via all available channels. The IR soon realized that if there was a way to collect this information from partners such as banks and payroll organizations, and present it to the citizen in a pre-populated form, this could save the time and ultimately further encourage use of the online service.

To initiate such a service, best of breed players came together. With access to payroll information for one in five of the UK workforce, RebusHR holds a wealth of financial information that can make completing self-assessment forms quicker and easier. To make the most of this asset, it worked closely with Digita, a provider of Web-enabled software for e-filing services. Together, RebusHR's information and Digita's software had the potential to enable pre-populated online tax returns.

The new solution enables employees access the forms they need for self-assessment. 80% of the details required to fill in the form can be drawn from the RebusHR database utilizing XML data containing employees' payroll details. A structured interview process (specified in XML by the service provider for rapid development/customisation) makes the process of gathering, collating and verifying tax returns much simpler. And electronic filing to the Inland Revenue upon completion (via the Government Gateway) ensures efficiency. The service is free, and offering it at work is convenient for both taxpayers and employers.

Both Microsoft Ltd. (the UK subsidiary) and RebusHR have tested the solution in their own organizations and feedback has been extremely positive. Steve Harvey, Group Director, People, Profit and Culture, Microsoft says: "Our employees have been really enthusiastic about this solution — the proof is in the take-up rates and willingness to participate in repeat usage. As busy people, they still have the convenience of 24/7 access and now it also saves them time by pre-populating the form. We're all looking forward to seeing the pre-population functionality for pensions and share information added next year."

A similar reaction is expected when the solution is rolled out to other organizations during 2003. Coleman says: "Electronic submissions at the end of January 2002 were up to 325,000, representing an increase of 326 per cent on the previous year. This is a fantastic achievement in itself and by offering pre-populated forms to employees via their work intranets, we can be sure that user numbers will continue to rocket."

The Inland Revenue has derived significant benefits from working with trusted partners, capitalizing on their established channels to market. Once information is established as correct in a central payroll database, pre-populated returns eliminate the risk of human error. Electronic calculation also ensures accuracy. The tax returns are submitted electronically, automating key business processes. Now, for example, forms are sent to the Inland Revenue via the Government Gateway. Meanwhile, receipts are issued and the status of end-users is tracked automatically with no need for human intervention. This brings enormous benefits in terms of operational efficiency, as well as for meeting and measuring online service delivery targets.

The many benefits of well defined interface mechanisms (i.e. GovTalk) and centralised data interchange and security mechanisms (i.e. Government Gateway) bring about one of the greatest e-government empowering mechanisms promised by ICT: joined up government. This is such a powerful concept because it promises seamless service delivery across organisations, greater efficiencies and a better user experience for service providers and users alike.

One exciting project that has recently passed proof of concept and is to be rolled out in a series of UK pilots throughout 2003 is the CJS Exchange (CJSE), a lead service development from CJIT (www.cjit.gov.uk). The CJSE will enable criminal justice professionals in "core" criminal justice organisations (CJOs) and others (such as defence lawyers and barristers) to share case file information electronically and securely in the form of case-specific documents (such as charge sheets), information in other formats (such as video clips) and information of wider interest (such as court listings).

Figure 4. 

XML is a key enabler in developing the CJSE as it is required to develop and maintain an index of every document (or video or audio clip) prepared electronically within the criminal justice community (using case management systems) and registered with the Exchange. The Exchange will then act like a "window", enabling authorised criminal justice professionals to search for, and look at electronic documents held in case management systems in other CJOs. Visibility to specific case information is determined by individual CJO business rules and dependant on roles, which are authenticated against the Government Gateway (via SOAP API's).

It follows that an initial step in step in design of the Exchange is the development of the business data model (BDM), which is a meta-data model that specifies all the relevant data items in the many organizations engaged in the CJS. The different roles (e.g. Police Service, Crown Court), case states (e.g. Investigate and charge, serving sentence) and access levels to information are also defined in the BDM. And upon the CJSE integration design, the BDM provides the mechanism for mapping between shared data items that may have different names (or tags) within different organizations.

The 'joining up' of the criminal justice community through the CJS Exchange is expected to yield significant benefits to justice professionals, including: real-time access to information; timely court lists; reduced stationary, duplication and re-keying; and, as a result of improved case management, greater public confidence in the criminal justice system.

This paper has outlined a number of UK Government projects that have leveraged ICT systems and the standardised use of XML to bring about benefits within government as well as for businesses and citizens. There are many more projects across many government organisations that are delivering great solutions and huge benefits [eGIF02].

Across all the initiatives, the aim is to leverage existing initatives (e.g. GovTalk) and meet the modernization targets of 2005. But the benefits will be to leverage efficiencies, increase operability between government organizations, create solutions that keeps bureaucracy to a minimum, and most importantly, delivers the best possible service to the citizen so they continue to use government services online.

As if by acknowledgement to the cornerstones of this strategy, the e-GIF and GovTalk initiatives have attracted considerable attention on the international stage and are being considered by the EU IDA (Interchange of Data between Administrations) programme as bases for emerging European government data interchange standards.

The author would like to acknowledge Digita Group for the contribution of information related to their solutions.

Further information contained in this publication is gleaned from public sources and represents the personal view of the author on the issues discussed and may not necessarily represent the view of Microsoft or the UK Government.

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