Isle of Man Government delivers first of many Online Services

The Isle of Man Government has taken a major step forward in launching the first Online Service that allows convenient, easy to use and secure access to online services for people and businesses. In a pilot rollout of the full Online Service, eight farmers have been able to register and go on-line to enquire upon their Cattle Passports and track cattle movements. Over the next few months this new service will be offered to the full farming community and be extended to allow farmers to “transact”, registering cattle births, movements and deaths on-line. The current process involves sending paper forms to DAFF for entry on to the system; online access will not only speed up the whole process for the farmers and save DAFF administration time and money, but also help to improve the accuracy of the information.

The DAFF online service is the first in a series of Government Online Services aimed at improving the way citizens and businesses interact with the Isle of Man Government by organising information and services around their needs. Key to the project is the creation of re-usable 'Common Shared Services' which use technology to join up rather than duplicate services, making services more effective and efficient to design, deploy and operate. These components cover areas including webpage access, registration, security and privacy, administration and auditing which have all been used to deliver the first DAFF online service.

Going forward, a unique benefit of Government Online Services will be the ability for a Citizen or Business to register once with the Isle of Man Government then “enrol” for multiple services that will become available from Government Departments, Statutory Boards and Offices. In extending the single registration, development is already underway to deliver Online Services for Income Tax Division and Customs and Excise Division to allow online enquiries, electronic return filing and payment for some of their customers by April 2007.

Treasury Minister, Allan Bell, MHK commented

“The introduction of the first of these Online Services for Government marks an important step towards our objective of providing more cost effective and efficient public services to the resident population, as well as making the Island more attractive to the business community which expects online services in their dealings with Government”.

For further information please contact : - Andy Williams on telephone number 686226 or via email: andy.Williams@gov.im