The UK is the fifth most advanced European country for electronic government services, says the annual benchmark survey from Capgemini.

Austria is top of the league, following by Malta, Slovenia and Portugal. The UK is up one place since last year with 89 per cent of services now available online.

The complexity of services is also improving and there is a growing amount of transactional processing and active targeting of specific citizen groups. The UK's 90 per cent sophistication score ranks the public sector not far behind commercial business.

Availability of egovernment services across the EU has gone up to 58 per cent, from 50 per cent last year, but overall there is still a 20 per cent gap between the public and private sectors, and a 90 per cent gulf between the top and bottom of Europe's government league table.

Despite the progress, governments run the risk of complacency, said Capgemini vice president Graham Colclough.

"Although the results reveal strong evidence of businesses, in particular, being well served by online service; and governments being well advanced in services that bring them revenues; the risk remains of complacency in serving the citizen," said Colclough.

"This ultimately must remain the focus for all governments in order to build trust with their citizens.

"European governments must stop a gap opening up between the public and the commercial online worlds, and seek to deliver a new ‘Gov 2.0’ experience - one that attracts and fulfills citizen needs efficiently, consistently, inclusively, and economically."

The electronic availability of government services is part of the European Commission's i2010 strategy to making the region one of the world's leading knowledge economies.