Alan Beith MP

Alan Beith MP (Liberal Democrat) for Berwick-upon-Tweed. Deputy Leader Lib Dems. Chair Constitutional Affairs Committee. First elected to parliment in 1973. Before becoming a politician he was a lecturer in Politics at Newcastle University.

Contacts

E-mail: alan.beith.mp@parliament.uk Tel: 01665 602901 Office: 54 Bondgate Within Alnwick NE66 1JD

Digital Economy Bill

Has not yet been spoken to.

Freedom of Information

Commenting in a Constitutional Affairs Committee press release titled Govement'S climb-down on FOI fees is the only right move 25 October 2007 Chairman of the Committee Rt Hon Alan Beith MP said

"Obviously we greatly welcome the fact that the Government has seen sense and accepted our position - and that of the many people and organisations who have made good use of freer access to information - and not changed the charging regime as they had planned. To go ahead with their proposed changes would have been a great mistake - as the expression goes; it wasn't broke, don't fix it.
"We are however disappointed that they have largely ignored our point about independently funding the Office of the Information Commissioner - can it be appropriate for the Ministry of Justice to set the funding levels for the independent regulator and thereby directly influence its capacity to investigate complaints? The Commissioner would be in a far stronger position if he became an Officer of Parliament, like the Ombudsman. I am sure that Parliament will want to return to the issue of independence."

Rt Hon Alan Beith MP, Chairman of the Constitutional Affairs Select Committee, said: 25 June 2007

"The Freedom of Information Act works. It enhances the rights of the public. Neither the Government nor MPs should be seeking to limit its effectiveness, and there is no evidence here to support either the Government’s proposals on fees or the Bill. I am hopeful that both will now be dropped."

Rt Hon Alan Beith MP, Chairman of the Constitutional Affairs Committee, said: 16 October 2006

...we do not support the changes which the Government is minded to introduce.
These would allow public authorities to include reading, consideration and consultation time in calculating the appropriate limit above which requests could be refused on cost grounds. This is a measure which is open to abuse by authorities. Authorities would have the discretion to decide how long they needed to consider whether to release information and we are concerned that requesters could be denied access to information whenever authorities considered it would take them too long to provide it. In the same way, if public authorities were permitted to aggregate requests made by any one requester for the purposes of calculating these limits, it could arbitrarily exclude otherwise legitimate requests, just because the requester was seeking other information from that authority at the same time.
These changes, if implemented, would fly in the face of the Government's stated desire of encouraging an open culture and have the potential to block important requests where it would be in the public interest to disclose information. I reiterate the Committee's opinion that we see no need to change the FOI Fees Regulations.

Alan Beith is the Liberal Democrat MP who chaired the Commons Committee which reported into the success of the FOI Act this summer. He believes the media is being targeted. 23 October 2006

"I'm particularly concerned that responsible media use of the FOI Act is the target for this," he told OUT-LAW Radio. "They occasionally cite abuse of this some of which are by individuals rather than media organisations, some of which can be dealt with by existing powers and none of which require this sort of draconian measure."

Early Day Motions

Signed Early Day Motion 845 Freedom of Information 06 Febuary 2007

That this House expresses concern that the proposed new fees regulations under the Freedom of Information Act would allow authorities to refuse on cost grounds a high proportion of requests which they are currently required to answer; notes that the Government's consultation document recognises that this will have a greater impact on journalists, hon. Members, campaign groups and researchers than on private individuals; considers that such changes would undermine the Act's contribution to increased discussion of public affairs, accountability and trust in the work of public authorities; and calls on the Government not to proceed with the proposals.

Signed Early Day Motion 2699 Freedom of Information 10 December 2006

That this House welcomes the finding of the Constitutional Affairs Committee (HC991) that the Freedom of Information Act has `already brought about the release of significant new information and....this information is being used in a constructive and positive way' and the committee's conclusion that it sees `no need to change' the Act's charging arrangements; views with concern reports that the Government is considering changing these arrangements to permit an application fee to be charged for all requests or to allow authorities to refuse, on cost grounds, a significant proportion of requests which they currently must answer; and considers that such changes could undermine the Act's benefits of increased openness, accountability and trust in the work of public authorities.

Discgate

Chairman of the Justice Committee, Rt Hon Alan Beith MP said

"I think it was a shock to the public to find that such sensitive personal data could so easily be accessed and downloaded, and that it was possible for such data to be so easily lost, and of course further examples have come to light since the massive scale of the HMRC data loss was revealed. The public are going to take a lot more convincing that the Government has got a grip on this problem."

Alan Beith told BBC News Tougher data laws needed, say MPs 3 January 2008

"It is frankly incredible, for example, that the measures HMRC has put in place were not already standard procedure"

Electronic Voting

House of Commons debate E-democracy 16 December 2002

I understand that the Electoral Commission recently submitted its response to the Government's consultation paper on a policy for electronic democracy. It welcomed consideration of the role of technology in promoting participation, but underlined that the application of new methods of voting alone could not be relied upon to increase election turnout. The Electoral Commission will continue to evaluate the operation and impact of electronic schemes that were piloted at local elections. It will also use new technologies to support its voter awareness activities when appropriate.

House of Commons debate Online Voting 16 December 2002

The commission's evaluation of the May 2002 electoral pilots recognised concerns about the potential loss of privacy for voters involved in remote electronic voting and postal voting. However, the commission also noted that it was unaware of any evidence to suggest that remote voting led to an increase in formal allegations of electoral offences. The commission will continue to monitor closely the implications of remote voting.
...
One way to ensure that such pressure is not found too often is to make choice available to the electors as to how they cast their vote. Choice is one of the concepts that the commission has sought to encourage in its pilots so that people are not required to vote in ways that limit privacy.

Identity cards

Alan Beith has called for end to ID cards scheme. 15 January 2008

As Chairman of the House of Commons' Justice Committee, Mr Beith has heard a great deal of evidence on the protection of data and its safe storage and retrieval. Mr Beith has welcomed the Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg MP's publication of figures showing that 37 million pieces of personal information on UK citizens were lost in 2007, mostly by the Government.

"The expensive identity cards scheme is based on the government storing large amounts of information about each one of us on a central database,"
"But in 2007 the Government stumbled from one data loss crisis to another. The worst example came in November when the Government lost the personal details of all 25 million families with children. That has put the privacy of every family in Alnwick at risk."
"The dangers of putting so much information about every citizen in the UK into one central database are clear to everyone except, it seems, the Government. Ministers are in denial when they argue that the information will be safe and people's privacy will not be undermined."
"I am very pleased that new Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg is leading the battle to end the ID cards scheme. Liberal Democrats in Alnwick are right behind him. The plan to make everyone carry a piece of plastic should be buried before it ends up as another expensive government fiasco."
"The scheme will be a bureaucratic nightmare. It won't prevent illegal working. It won't help stop crime or terrorism. If the government really wants to make an impact on crime, terrorism and illegal immigration, the money it has earmarked for this scheme would be far better spent on more police and intelligence officers. That is what the Liberal Democrats would do."

Also see Discgate.

News

2008-03-11 - Justice Committee Press Release - Government response to Committee report on private data loss published
Summary: Chairman of the Committee, Rt Hon Alan Beith MP said: "I think it was a shock to the public to find that such sensitive personal data could so easily be accessed and downloaded, and that it was possible for such data to be so easily lost, and of course further examples have come to light since the massive scale of the HMRC data loss was revealed. The public are going to take a lot more convincing that the Government has got a grip on this problem."
2008-01-15 - Alan Beth Website - Alan Beith calls for end to ID cards scheme
Author: Alan Beth MP
Summary: Alan Beith and the Liberal Democrats in Alnwick have backed calls to the government to abandon plans to make people carry identity cards. As Chairman of the House of Commons' Justice Committee, Mr Beith has heard a great deal of evidence on the protection of data and its safe storage and retrieval. Mr Beith has welcomed the Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg MP's publication of figures showing that 37 million pieces of personal information on UK citizens were lost in 2007, mostly by the Government. The law bringing in ID cards has already been passed by Labour and soon most citizens will have to pay for an identity card. "The expensive identity cards scheme is based on the government storing large amounts of information about each one of us on a central database," said Alan Beith. "But in 2007 the Government stumbled from one data loss crisis to another. The worst example came in November when the Government lost the personal details of all 25 million families with children. That has put the privacy of every family in Alnwick at risk." "The dangers of putting so much information about every citizen in the UK into one central database are clear to everyone except, it seems, the Government. Ministers are in denial when they argue that the information will be safe and people's privacy will not be undermined." "I am very pleased that new Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg is leading the battle to end the ID cards scheme. Liberal Democrats in Alnwick are right behind him. The plan to make everyone carry a piece of plastic should be buried before it ends up as another expensive government fiasco." "The scheme will be a bureaucratic nightmare. It won't prevent illegal working. It won't help stop crime or terrorism. If the government really wants to make an impact on crime, terrorism and illegal immigration, the money it has earmarked for this scheme would be far better spent on more police and intelligence officers. That is what the Liberal Democrats would do."
2008-01-03 - BBC - Tougher data laws needed, say MPs
Summary: Reckless or repeated breaches of data security should become a criminal offence, a committee of MPs has said. ... Its Liberal Democrat chairman Alan Beith said: "The scale of the data loss by government bodies and contractors is truly shocking but the evidence we have had points to further hidden problems. "It is frankly incredible, for example, that the measures HMRC has put in place were not already standard procedure."
2007-02-08 - Press Gazette - Cross-party motion highlights MPs' concern over FOI proposal
Author: Sarah Lagan
Summary: Journalists have been urged to encourage their local MPs to back a cross-party early day motion opposing government proposals to water down the Freedom of Information Act. ... The MPs tabling the motion are Tony Wright (Labour and chairman of the Public Administration Committee), Alan Beith (LibDem and chairman of the Constitutional Affairs Committee), Dominic Grieve (Conservative and shadow attorney general), Mark Fisher (Lab), Richard Shepherd (Con) and Simon Hughes (LibDem).
2007-02-06 - Press Gazette - MPs call for views on FOI changes
Summary: The committee's chairman, Liberal Democrat MP Alan Beith, said: "We are extremely concerned that the Government might go ahead with these changes, which are very widely opposed. That's why we are taking further evidence at this stage."
2006-10-23 - The Register - FoI changes could block release of controversial info
Summary: Changes planned to the rules surrounding Freedom of Information legislation will prevent the most controversial information from being made public, according to legal and political experts. The media is likely to be hardest hit by proposed changes, they said. ... Alan Beith is the Liberal Democrat MP who chaired the Commons Committee which reported into the success of the FOI Act this summer. He believes the media is being targeted. "I'm particularly concerned that responsible media use of the FOI Act is the target for this," he told OUT-LAW Radio. "They occasionally cite abuse of this some of which are by individuals rather than media organisations, some of which can be dealt with by existing powers and none of which require this sort of draconian measure."
2004-12-20 - BBC - E-mail deletion attacked by Beith
Summary: The deletion of millions of government e-mails could harm the ability of key probes like the Hutton Inquiry, a senior MP has warned. ... It was "too unlikely to have been a coincidence", said constitutional affairs committee chairman Alan Beith.But Mr Beith said: "It could quite clearly lead to the removal of information which is absolutely crucial in a range of events, whether you look at the current inquiry into David Blunkett or the Hutton Inquiry, where e-mails were so crucial in following the trail." He argued that many things that were once said on the phone were now enclosed in emails - thus providing a written record. E-mail records were therefore now crucial to finding out the reasons for "controversial decisions", he said. "This is not supposed to be an inconvenient chore for departments. There is supposed to be a change in culture where it is recognised that the public is entitled to know all these things about the way in which the government makes its decisions." The information commissioner should look how the "e-mail regime" can "support the freedom of information regime", he added.
2004-12-13 - The Register - UK public sector unready for Freedom of Information Act
Summary: Public bodies are unready for the Freedom of Information Act (FoIA), according to an MPs report from the Department of Constitutional Affairs (DCA) Select Committee. With less than a month to go before the act becomes law, compliance among the 100,000 or so public sector organisations affected by the act is patchy at best. Alan Beith, chairman of the DCA select committee, said: "The DCA has had four years to prepare for freedom of information but with less than a month to go it appears that some bodies may not be well enough prepared."
2004-12-07 - BBC - 'Few ready' for information act
Summary: Thousands of public bodies are ill-prepared for the Freedom of Information Act, due to come into force next month, says an influential group of MPs. ... Committee chairman Alan Beith said: "The DCA has had four years to prepare for freedom of information, but with less than a month to go it appears that some bodies may not be well enough prepared. "Our report shows that in the past support and guidance from the DCA, which has overall responsibility for guiding the public sector through the process of implementation for the freedom of information regime, has been lacking." Mr Beith later told BBC News he hoped the committee would be proved wrong. "The situation we have from 1 January is that the burden of proof is on government to show you should not have information rather than on you to prove to government you are entitled to it," he said. "That is such a cultural change that we would like to have seen it well under way sooner."
2001-04-18 - BBC - Cybercops arrest online liberty
Summary: Civil liberties are already being eroded by efforts to tackle computer crime, MPs and cyber-liberty campaigners have warned. ... During a debate on the report ISC member Alan Beith said it was "ludicrous" that such an important tribunal was so poorly staffed. "The several bodies involved are dependent on a tiny support structure which is quite incapable of carrying out the job," he said. "We are not providing a safeguard that should be there." Internet think-tank, the Foundation for Information Policy Research, shares the fears of the ISC Committee. Director Caspar Bowden said it did not augur well for the future of civil liberties online if the tribunal was unable to do its job when its workload was so light.
1999-07-29 - BBC - Double attack on information bill
Summary: The government's draft Freedom of Information Bill has come under attack from two separate committees of MPs and peers. ... Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesman Alan Beith called on Mr Straw to amend the bill in line with the committee's recommendations so that the "public have genuine access to information".

Links

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