LONDON, March 20 (UPI) -- Prime Minister Gordon Brown plans to give every British citizen a personal Web page within a year that can be used for government transactions.
Brown is expected to announce the move Monday, The Times of London reported. His plan is reportedly to save billions of dollars for taxpayers while making applying for a passport or paying taxes as easy as shopping on Amazon.com.
Once Web pages are available, the plan would be to set up a government social networking site that would allow parents to communicate with their children's teachers and patients to discuss symptoms online with their doctors as privately as if they were face to face in an office.
Union leaders are skeptical of the plan, which could cost thousands of jobs if it works. They said many people, especially the poor, elderly and disabled, are unused to online transactions.
Jonathan Baume, general secretary of the FDA, a union representing first-division civil servants, said the government's record on providing online services is mixed.
"You cannot underestimate a whole range of risk factors including upfront costs, data protection, identity theft and social exclusion, with many people already irritated by online transactions," he said. "Roughly 12 billion pounds of taxpayers' money has also just been wasted on the NHS IT project and there has been a long history of government computer problems."
