Electronic Government Bill

A

BILL

TO

Enhance the management and promotion of electronic Government services, administration and processes and for connected purposes.

BE IT ENACTED by the King’s Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament, assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows —

Section 1: Definitions

For the purposes of this Act, the following definitions apply, unless specified otherwise

(1) ‘Public Authority’ or ‘Authority’ refers to any Government body or person carrying out public functions of administration.

(2) ‘Electronic Registers’ refer to which data are collected or stored on the basis of national legislation; these may be public or non-public registers.

Section 2: Scope

(1) This Act shall apply to the administrative activities under public statute of authorities, including bodies, institutions and foundations under public authority which are directly accountable to the Government.

(2) This Act shall further apply to the administrative activities of local authorities, local authority associations and other entities under public statute.

(3) This Act shall apply to the activities of court administrations and administrative bodies of the judiciary, including public statute entities under their supervision only where such activities are subject to review by the courts of administrative jurisdiction or review by the courts competent in cases concerning the activities of lawyers, patent lawyers and notaries under administrative law.

(4) This Act shall apply insofar as no Act or regulation contains identical or conflicting provisions.

(5) This Act shall not apply to —

(a) criminal prosecution or the prosecution of and imposition of punishments for administrative offences, judicial proceedings carried out on behalf of foreign legal authorities in criminal and civil matters, tax and customs investigations or measures relating to the legal status of the judiciary,

(b) proceedings at the UK Intellectual Property Office or before its appointed arbitrators, and

(c) its administrative activities.

Section 3: Publicly accessible networks and electronic access

(1) Every authority shall be obliged to open up a point of access for the transfer of electronic documents, including such documents provided with a qualified electronic signature.

(1) Every public authority shall make information on its work, its address, its business hours and its contact details for postal, telephone and electronic communications generally available in generally comprehensible terms via publicly accessible networks.

(2) Every public authority shall provide information in generally comprehensible terms about its activities under public law relating to external parties, attendant charges, documentation to be furnished, the competent point of contact and the latter's contact details, and shall make necessary forms available.

(3) Paragraphs (1) and (2) shall apply to local authorities and local authority associations only where stipulated under the relevant legislation.

Section 4: Electronic Means of Payment

Where charges or other amounts receivable arise in connection with an administrative procedure carried out by electronic means, the authority must enable payment of such charges or other amounts receivable by participating in at least one adequately secure payment procedure which is customary in the area of electronic business transactions.

Section 5: Required Documentation

(1) Where an administrative procedure is carried out by electronic means, the documents to be presented may be submitted by electronic means, save where this is at variance with a legal provision or where the authority requires the submission of an original document for certain procedures or in individual instances. The authority shall decide after due consideration at its own discretion which form of electronic submission is permissible in order to determine the facts of the matter in hand.

(2) With the consent of the party involved in the procedure, the competent authority may retrieve required documentation originating from a public body directly from the issuing public body.

(3) The requesting authority and the furnishing public body may collect, process and use the necessary and legal personal data to this end.

(4) In the absence of any legal provisions to the contrary, the consent pursuant to paragraphs (2) and (3) may be provided by electronic means. In this connection, the authority shall ensure that the data subject —

(a) has granted their consent consciously and unambiguously,

(b) can retrieve the content of the consent at any time, and

(c) can revoke the consent at any time with effect for the future.

The consent shall be documented.

Section 6: Electronic record-keeping

(1) Public authorities shall be required to keep their records further in electronic form.

(2) Paragraph (1) shall not apply to authorities for whom keeping electronic records is not economical in the long term.

(3) Where records are kept in electronic form, appropriate technical and organisational measures are to be undertaken in accordance with the state of the art to ensure that the principles of orderly record-keeping are observed.

Section 7: File Acess

(1) Where a right to inspect files exists, public authorities that keep files in electronic form may grant access to files by —

(a) providing a print-out of the files concerned,

(b) displaying the electronic documents on a screen,

(c) transmitting electronic documents, or

(d) permitting electronic access to the content of the files.

Section 8: Optimisation of administrative procedures and information on the status of progress

(1) Prior to introducing IT systems, public authorities should apply established methods to document, analyse and optimise administrative procedures which are to become largely electronically based for the first time.

(2) In the interests of the parties involved in the procedures, the necessary workflows should be designed so that information on the status of progress and on the further course of the process can be retrieved by electronic means, together with contact information regarding the competent point of contact at the time of the inquiry concerned.

(3) The measures pursuant to paragraphs (1) and (2) may be waived where these would require unreasonable costs or where such measures are inappropriate on other compelling grounds.

(4) The measures pursuant to paragraph (2) may also be waived where these would be counter to the purpose of the procedure concerned or would breach a protective rule of law.

(5) The grounds pursuant to paragraphs (3) and (4) shall be documented.

(6) The provisions of this Section shall apply mutatis mutandis to any substantial changes to the administrative procedures or the IT systems used.

**Section 9: Electronic forms

(1) Where a legal provision stipulates the use of a certain form providing a signature field, this alone shall not be tantamount to requiring a written form.

(2) The signature field shall be either —

(a) omitted from a version of the form intended for electronic submission to the authority, or

(b) made accessible for the use of electronic signature methods.

Section 10: Georeferencing

(1) If an electronic register which contains information relating to real estate within The United Kingdom is created or revised, the authority is to include standard nationwide georeferencing (coordinates) in the register relating to the respective parcel or the building or an area defined in a legal provision to which the information refers.

Section 11: Barrier-free Accessibility

Public authorities shall ensure the barrier-free design of electronic communications, services and the use of electronic documents in an appropriate manner pursuant to the Equality Act 2010 to accommodate those with disabilities and learning difficulties.

Section 12: Extent, Commencement and Short Title

(1) This Act extends to England only.

(2) This Act comes into force at the end of the period of 3 months beginning with the day on which this Act is passed.

(3) This Act may be cited as the Electronic Government Act.

This Bill was submitted by u/Waffel-lol Spokesperson for Home Affairs and Justice, Business, Innovation and Trade, and International Development, on behalf of the Liberal Democrats

Opening Speech:

Deputy Speaker,

In the modern era, it is important now more than ever that we embrace the benefits the rapid development and advancement of technology has brought. Too much are people’s lives burdened by slow, inefficient and inaccessible documents and archives that constrain productivity and Government business. The availability of information, from personal information to public information, is made all the easier today due to technological changes in computers, digitised networks, internet access, and the creation of new information products. Effective digital public services, or ‘eGovernment’, can provide a wide variety of benefits. These include more efficiency and savings for governments and businesses, increased transparency, and greater participation of citizens in political life. ICT and modern technology are already widely used by government bodies across the world, but Electronic Government involves more than just the tools: it involves rethinking organisations and processes, and changing behaviour so that public services are delivered more efficiently to people. Implemented well, such measures enable people, enterprises and organisations to carry out their interactions with the government more easily, more quickly and at lower cost.

We in the Liberal Democrats pride ourselves on our drive to innovate and bring Britain into a bold and bright future. Our very simple bill aims to bring the United Kingdom forward in its accessibility and ease of life as we require the incorporation and use of electronic services, archival and documents over the cumbersome and inefficient archaic modes. The management of Government services absolutely needs to be ensured it is the best quality it can be which is why our bill here sets in motion the digitisation of public services and administration stretching to all levels of local and national Governance.

This division will end on Friday 3rd November at 10pm GMT.