Internet spells end of the school report

Doctors should send emails instead of writing referral letters and schools should stop printing reports, an advisor to the British Prime Minister has said.

Tim Kelsey, No 10's director of transparency, said that schools and doctors should use the web to cut down paperwork and reduce their costs.

Mr Kelsey said: "We don’t want to have schools spending money on printing school reports nor do we want to have doctors sending out referral letters. That can be done online.”

He compared the shift to the move to online banking, saying the “sleight of hand” by the banks meant customers were “happy to be using the web because they had more control while also doing the banks’ clerical work for them”.

Speaking to think tank Demos, Mr Kelsey said that making more information available online was crucial to the Government’s open data strategy. He said that in future all companies doing work for public money could be forced to make their data public as well. “Transparency should follow the money. Wherever public money is being spent, there should be openness”.

The Government is to launch a new consultation on openness within the next few weeks. Mr Kelsey added that “there was a debate to be had” on whether advice given to ministers should be made public

- Matt Warman