So, we are number two. After a humiliating run of poor placings in world rankings of broadband connections and other e-indicators, the UK this week managed second place (behind the US) in an international league table of e-readiness.

This is just as well, because the study*, covering the G7 nations plus Australia and Sweden, was commissioned to test the prime minister's ambition for the UK to be the best environment in the world for e-commerce by the end of the year.

Tony Blair can now cite independent evidence that his e-policies are working - but that there is no room for complacency, especially in the public sector.

"We are doing well, but not well enough," he said on Tuesday, launching the report at an international e-summit in London. Opposition politicians will attack the £300,000 study as a masterpiece of spin. For a start, it omits Singapore, which might well have pushed the UK into third place. But the report is likely to have a strong influence on government policy, especially in e-government, where it suggests the UK is lagging. Although the UK managed number two in what the study calls overall environment, it came fifth out of nine in government "e-maturity", behind the US, Canada, Sweden and Australia.

In the other two categories the report assessed, "e-maturity of citizens" and "e-maturity of businesses", the UK did slightly better, ranking fourth. The relative poor showing of government is a surprising finding. Most pundits had assumed that citizens, with their notoriously poor literacy and IT skills, would let the side down. In his first "e-speech" since he launched his UK Online project two years ago, Blair announced plans for the government to get its act together.

Here, there were no big surprises. As we have known since the chancellor's comprehensive spending review, the government is chucking money at IT: £1bn alone on broadband networks for public services over the next three years, Blair revealed.

The headline grabber was schools: broadband for all primaries and secondaries by 2006. As expected, the NHS will get its new broadband network "to make it possible for an ambulance crew arriving at the scene of an accident to check the patient's record using handheld devices".

A similar network will help rebuild the criminal justice system around victims and reduce the waste of police time. With less obvious direct benefit to the public, Blair also promised more bandwidth to the offices of the Department for Work and Pensions. Blair acknowledged two weaknesses in e-government, first, in takeup of e-services.

Only about one in 10 Britons has used an e-government service, well behind the figures in other rich nations. He didn't say what the government would do about it. Officials said the answer would be to concentrate on the most regularly used e-government services. But Blair hinted that one focus will be on motorists, who will be able to "conduct all their dealings with governments online".

We can look forward to the long overdue launch of online car tax (held up because of the lack of elec tronic data on insurance and MOT), vehicle registration and driving licence applications. He also announced the revival of the Transport Direct website, one of the many casualties of railway chaos at the turn of the millennium. The second weakness is the tendency for big IT projects to go wrong. Blair said he had asked the head of the Office of Government Commerce, Peter Gershon, "to bring forward immediate proposals for further strengthening the successful delivery of IT in government".

Ideas for preventing disasters would emerge, officials said. A final ingredient is public sector reform. These new networks and measures will pave the way for "fundamental improvements in efficiency, convenience and quality of public services", Blair said.

But, presumably with an eye to current confrontations with firefighters and NHS consultants, he did not specify what changes would be necessary in the white heat of the IT revolution.