HWG/13/1
NOTE OF THE THIRTEENTH MEETING OF THE HORIZON WORKING
GROUP HELD ON WEDNESDAY 13 DECEMBER AT 11.30 AT THE DTI
CONFERENCE CENTRE, 1 VICTORIA STREET, LONDON
Those present:
on
Mike Whitehead Postal Services Directorate
Hugh Rawson Postal Services Directorate
Mary Spoor Postal Services Directorate
DETR
Lord Whitty Information Minister
‘Andrew Hebden PS/Lord Whitty
Jenni Borg Head e-Business Strategy Unit
Post Office
Stuart Sweetman Group Managing Director Customer and Banking Services
Dave Miller Managing Director Post Office Networks
Dave Waltho Government Gateway Director
cwu
Derek Hodgson General Secretary
Tony Kearns Assistant Secretary
Matthew Payton Research Assistant
cMA
Tony Harris Assistant National Secretary
NESP
Colin Baker General Secretary
John Peberdy Chairman Negotiating Committee
Chairman’s Introduction
Mike Whitehead welcomed Lord Whitty and his team to the Working Group.
A pressing matter prevented Mr Johnson, at short notice, from chairing the
meeting. Apologies for absence had been received from Mr McCartney and
Terry Deegan.
DETR presentation on electronic delivery of services
DETR e-business strategy took account not only of the central functions of the
Department but also the work of nine Agencies, nine Government Offices
reporting jointly to DETR and Cabinet Office, 25 Non Departmental Public
Bodies and local government. As well as an Information Minister, a senior
Official within DETR carried responsibility as the e-Champion. Essentially
each business unit and each directorate was responsible for developing and
pursuing its own business strategy within the overall Departmental vision of
working closely and interactively with partners, in both the public and private
sectors, to address common issues and to transform delivery of services to
individuals and businesses by 2005.
Information was to be made available through the Internet and associated
delivery channels and easily located via the DETR website, the UK Online
Government portal or public and private sector partners’ websites. It was also
BEIS0000567
BEISO000567
planned to deliver online transactional services. An example of one of these
projects was Transport Direct which would provide electronically travel
information, road reports and ticket purchasing. DETR’s internal
administation would also be adapting more to electronic working including its
use in record keeping and e-procurement.
Local government was also addressing the challenge of the Information Age.
Although authorities could not abandon the traditional methods of doing
business, many had recognised that there was a need to move forward and
support e-business as a delivery channel for the future. Some local
authorities were therefore starting to develop their own e-business strategy in
advance of a high level approach which DETR aimed to publish in March
2001. To assist the overall process, the Local Government Association,
working closely with DETR, had formulated a set of guidelines for their
members in order to achieve by 2005:
Services available outside normal working hours;
Free Internet access to citizens;
Multi channel delivery of services;
Co-ordination around key life episodes;
Overcoming of difficulties associated with security of personal information;
Use of smartcards for payments such as for transport, school meals etc;
Online voting and voter registration;
Transfer of call centres to multi-agency centres set up in public/private
partnerships to provide added value of help and advice;
¢ Councillors learn on-line equipment;
e Use of e-communication for public consultation;
¢ Staff benefits such as flexi-working, home working.
Hilary Armstrong, the DETR Minister for Local Government and Housing,
would be announcing on 13 December the funding mechanism to distribute
Spending Review allocation of £350 million over three years. Funding of £25
million for the first year, 2001/02, was to be used by pathfinder local
authorities undertaking specific work which would concentrate on developing
partnerships with local businesses and organisations. The results would be
broadcast to other councils. As emphasis was being placed on local
authorities establishing partnerships, this was a possible area for co-operation
with the Post Office.
Partnership between DETR and the Post Office was already in place centring
on business conducted by the DVLA. This relationship was moving forward to
encompass a pilot study for vehicle relicensing over the Internet and
telephone. The launch was scheduled for April 2001 and would be restricted
to Motability vehicles at the beginning. DVLA also planned that the vehicle
licence renewal form would be barcoded to facilitate relicensing. If this
proposal was taken forward it should be possible for Horizon scanning
equipment to read and process these forms.
BEIS0000567
BEISO000567
Lord Whitty foresaw opportunities for further collaboration with the Post Office
in regard to delivery of services involving face to face contact and verification
with the public or to provide a trusted human interface with electronic
services. The unique reach of the network could allow post offices to provide
local authority services which would be a welcome additional amenity
particularly in isolated areas both rural and urban.
(The text of Lord Whitty’s presentation is attached to this note)
Questions and Discussion
Stuart Sweetman said that the presentation indicated the potential for many
opportunities to be exploited in working with the DETR and local government
and certainly, the Post Office wished to and was ready to compete for this
work. Following the recent announcement of the pilot project to test the
Government GP scheme, the Post Office was keen to ensure that
opportunities were provided for their customers to have access to the Internet
so that no one should be excluded from the new technology. The Horizon
computer programme was on course for completion by Spring 2001. The
system was smartcard enabled and it was expected that projects would be
launched to pilot use of cards. Currently, the Post Office was piloting a
scheme in Manchester to electronically recharge transport cards, if successful
there was enormous potential for this business particularly in towns and cities.
Assistance was also being sought from NACAB to train Subpostmasters in
dispensing information.
Lord Whitty said he was interested to learn about the Government GP
scheme. News about the pilot was encouraging and there should be
opportunities for co-operation between the Post Office and local authorities.
Local authorities throughout the country were being required to rationalise so
there was a possibility, in view of the extensive reach of the network for the
Post Office, to provide additional outlets on the ground. One other possibility,
which he would raise in DETR was to combine pathfinder funding with support
available to the Post Office for the Government GP pilot in Leicestershire. It
was most important however, to share information and so avoid organisations
duplicating and reinventing initiatives.
ACTION:DETR
Mr Sweetman said that he would arrange for the Post Office to make a
presentation to the Minister on its plans.
ACTION: POST OFFICE
Horizon roll out update
Dave Miller said that 15,280 post offices had been converted. The target had
been 15,000, so the project was one week ahead of schedule. Currently the
installation project had stopped for the Christmas break and was due to
BEIS0000567
BEIS0000567
resume in mid January. The programme was on schedule for completion by
the end of March 2001, with a few exceptions.
Remote fitting of a new software release, CSR Plus, was expected by the end
of December.
PIU implementation update
a) Universal Banking Services
Mike Whitehead said that discussions continued with the banks.
In view of the Working Group having been informed that signature to an MOU
between Government and the banks was expected in early December, Tony
Kearns asked about the progress of these discussions. Stuart Sweetman
said there had been some slippage of the original timetable because it had
taken longer than envisaged for the BBA to come forward with consensus
amongst its members. However, it was expected that difficulties would be
resolved by the end of the year. Currently the slippage did not compromise
the overall project timetable.
b) Government GP
Mike Whitehead said that a contract between Government and the Post Office
had been signed on 30 November. As a result, up to £15 million was being
made available to support a pilot project in Leicestershire due to begin in the
early Summer.
Mr Johnson had accepted the Secretary of State’s invitation to take on the
role of Champion Minister for the project. The Minister envisaged that he
would take forward the work assisted by an inter Departmental Group of
officials which he would chair.
Dave Waltho said that he hoped that the pilot project would begin in June.
Currently the project was progressing well and so far the Post Office had
assembled a team of 30 people and there remained one or two posts yet to
be filled. It was important that a successful outcome for the project should not
be jeopardised in the early stages by hasty preparation.
Any other business
Stuart Sweetman said that the Post Office had recently met DSS at a regular
strategic partner meeting. DSS plans for ACT migration had progressed since
November 1999 which was the last occasion on which the Working Group
was updated on this issue. DSS was willing to report back to the meeting and
so Mr Sweetman proposed that they be invited to do so.
ACTION: DTI
The Post Office had recently signed to provide a new bill payment scheme
with Scottish Power. Mr Sweetman said that Post Office Network planned to
promote this service aggressively in the New Year as product of the month in
BEIS0000567
BEIS0000567
January to establish customer loyalty. The Scottish Power group comprised
Manweb and Southern Water and as these companies supplied one in five
UK homes there was potential capture of 35 million transactions for the Post
Office. A timescale of six months was open to the Post Office to profit from
this opportunity before Scottish Power also signed a second payment scheme
deal with PayPoint.
Date of the next meeting
To be arranged.
CGBPS1A
20 December 2000
BEIS0000567
BEIS0000567