Magistrates who have legal qualifications could be fast tracked into posts as judges as part of a series of measures to widen the poll from which members of the judiciary are selected. Other people who are qualified but not practising in the courts system could also be considered.The proposals have been unveiled by Lord Falconer, the Lord Chancellor, in a drive to encourage women, people from minority ethnic groups and lawyers with disabilities to apply for judicial office. Lord Falconer stressed that appointments would still be made on merit.

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The government is calling on local authorities to focus in the next year on realising the full potential of Local e-Government. The call has been made with the publication of the second annual report on the National Strategy for Local e-Government by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.The document details key areas of progress and identifies what still needs to be done to meet the December 2005 local e-government target. The report builds on feedback from local authorities on their implementation strategies.

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This seventh annual survey of 468 local council websites from the Society of IT Management shows steady improvement in the content and usability of sites, but no evidence of a surge to meet the 2005 targets for 100% electronic service delivery. The results of this year’s survey show that 15 sites achieved the top rating of a ‘transactional’ site, bringing the total in this category to 38. There is a steady movement out of the lowest category of ‘promotional’ site, with 33 sites moving up a category. Overall there was a net increase of 128 sites moving up a category, compared with 146 in 2004.There is a new focus on usability and usage and this is a response to the Efficiency Review and the new requirement to achieve a 2.5% per annum efficiency gain over the next three years. A major slice of efficiency gains in the future is likely to come from transferring activity from person to person in a front office or by phone to self-service via the council website. To achieve this shift, 90% of councils sites will have to move up into the ‘transactional’ category.

Read more on BETTER CONNECTED 2005…