Britain has a new homepage on the internet as the Government takes a more direct approach to making public services available to the masses. We look at how www.direct.gov.uk shapes up ...

A NEW official national web portal has been launched. As a website in its own right www.direct.gov.uk is nothing special but the amount of information it provides a gateway to is huge.

There is a reasonable amount of information available on the site itself but its real power comes from the number of links it provides to government departments and other useful services.

This gives the site huge potential for making access to and use of public services much easier for millions of people.

However, easy access to public services sounds almost too good to be true so I tested it out with mixed results.

I picked two subjects, one which I simply wanted information on and another which would involve making an application so I could see how easy this e-government thing really is.

Finding the information I wanted was not a problem.

A few clicks on the mouse presented me with all the details I wanted on my first chosen subject, local childcare services.

Getting information on my second subject, tax credits, was also not a problem another few clicks and I was at the relevant section on the Inland Revenue website. However, making an application proved difficult.

There was a certain piece of information which I could not provide in the exact style required by the form.

Rather than let me include a covering note to explain why, the site simply refused to let me submit my application.

Instead I have to go through the whole form-filling process again only next time on paper.

The Government is to be commended for putting public services online but it seems individual departments have a bit of work to do before they are truly user-friendly.