Users pay 2 for the new Q Watch service, which doesn't save you any time but allows you to use your time more efficiently when you do have to visit the office.

There is a 2 charge to use the Q Watch service, which is being provided by EM Solutions in conjunction with electrical contractor J&C Hendrick.

Presumably, given its responsibility for collecting motor taxation, the council gets its cut from the Q Watch service, which means that the state benefits from the fact that the state operates an inefficient service in the first place.

Motor tax can be paid online, but the fact that there is a market for Q Watch shows that the offices are still to busy . . .

or the Nutgrove one is, in any case.

Q Watch plans to roll out the service to other government offices later this year . . . but surely we should be using technology to make it easier to interact with the state online rather than using it to help the poor souls stuck in government offices to nip out for a coffee safe in the knowledge that they are not missing their place in a queue.