The Government will press ahead with a plan to build a new system to act as a single point of contact for all public services following a major review by a top- level civil service committee.

The proposed public services broker is the key piece of technical infrastructure that will enable consumers to use the internet, telephone or walk-in centres to conduct Government business in the future. It will cover all public services and also act as a central data vault for customer information for identification purposes.

The system is based on using people's personal public services numbers as unique identifiers for conducting all business with the Government. It will store citizens' credit card details to enable people to pay for services online.

A tender to build the system initiated by Reach - the Government agency which is managing the project - was halted earlier this year because of Government concern over the cost and management of the broker project.

However, a major review by the secretary generals of several Government departments recently recommended proceeding with the broker. Four companies have now been shortlisted for the contract to supply the technology infrastructure. The shortlisted firms are: Accenture; Bearing Point; HP Services Consulting and Integration; and Siemens Business Services.

Mr Oliver Ryan, director of Reach, said yesterday the tender process should be completed by November, enabling the first phase of the project to be completed in the first quarter 2004.

He said the secretary general's review group had made some modifications to the project including streamlining the decision-making process. The broker project has been delayed, partly because it cuts across almost every Government department.