Government to scrap e-Envoy role

The government will scrap its flagship department for IT next spring, replacing it with a head of e-government.

Andrew Pinder, the current e-Envoy, is set to leave the post next April when his contract expires. He will not be replaced.

Instead, a new head of e-government will oversee public sector reforms, such as making services available online.

"Their task will be to focus on ensuring that IT supports the business transformation of government itself," said Cabinet Office minister Douglas Alexander in a statement.

Pinder, a former director of the Inland Revenue's IT division, took the £130K a year job in January 2001, after a few months in temporary charge.

He replaced the first e-Envoy, Alex Allen, who departed unexpectedly because of family illness.

The e-Envoy was initially envisaged to be the person responsible for driving the adoption of e-business throughout the UK.

In recent times, however, the position has been saddled with the near impossible task of ensuring that public sector bodies make their services accessible via the internet by 2005.

Pinder has also seen a reduction in the influence of his department, and has suffered budget cuts of 20 per cent as the government sought to put funding into projects with a greater chance of success.