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Electronic Government: Public Participation

Volume 457: debated on Monday 5 March 2007

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assessment she made of the potential effect on Government of using internet weblogs to engage with citizens. (125095)

The Department has assessed the benefits of blogs and other innovative online deliberative tools through our active participation in the digital dialogues project, conducted by the Hansard society on behalf of the Department for Constitutional Affairs.

The purpose of the project is to test central Government's use of tools such as webchats, forums and weblogs to re-engage with the public and encourage interactive ongoing dialogue.

The interim report of digital dialogues contains three case studies from the Department, including the launch of David Miliband's blog at our predecessor department, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. To view the report, visit

www.digitaldialogues.org.uk/interimreport.