Caroline Spelman MP

Caroline Spelman MP (Conservative) MP for Meriden. Shadow Secretary of State for Local Government. First elected in 1997. She has a BA First Class in European Studies. She is married and has three children.

Issues

Electronic Voting

Caroline Spelman Labour slips out all-postal ballot plan 28 June 2004

"It would appear that they now wish to make all-postal voting the norm in both local and regional government elections. In addition, their plans for extending e-voting are highly contentious given the widespread concern over the security of electronic voting where it has been trialled in the United States and Ireland."
"The traditional cross-party consensus on changes to the electoral system has been completely undermined by a Government more interested in change for change's sake than protecting the integrity of our democracy."

Written answers Electoral Registration 28 November 2006, Written answers Electoral Administration Act 2006 18 October 2006, Written answers Local Government Elections 24 May 2005, Written answers Election Arrangements 7 June 2005

Children's Digital Rights

Written answers Electronic Children's Database 24 July 2006, Written answers Electronic Children's Database 6 July 2006, Written answers Electronic Children's Database 6 July 2006

Identity cards

Solihull & Warwickshire Guardian Column - ID Cards back on the agenda 24 November 2005

Identity cards are back on the agenda again. As you may recall the Government did not get is legislation on this through Parliament before the General Election. Since then we have had the dreadful events of July 7th in London. Would identity cards have prevented this situation? I fear not. I believe it is significant that the former head of MI5, Stella Rimington, has said that identity cards will not make Britain any safer from terrorists. The Bill would take a decade to come into full effect and would do nothing to solve the immediate problems of rising crime, to tighten Britain’s borders or combat terrorism.

Links

News

2006-01-13 - The Register - DCA goes all bashful on ID card voting linkage
Author: John Lettice
Summary: Despite rumours to the contrary, the Government has as yet not announced plans to harvest the UK's electoral rolls for ID card defaulters, or to make voting dependent on having an ID card. ... Tory MP Caroline Spelman asked "what assessment the Government have made of whether a new electoral register database (a) will be of assistance in and (b) may be used to assist the introduction of identity cards."
2005-11-24 - Solihull and Warwickshire Guardian - ID Cards back on the agenda
Author: Caroline Spelman
Summary: Identity cards are back on the agenda again. As you may recall the Government did not get is legislation on this through Parliament before the General Election. Since then we have had the dreadful events of July 7th in London. Would identity cards have prevented this situation? I fear not. I believe it is significant that the former head of MI5, Stella Rimington, has said that identity cards will not make Britain any safer from terrorists. The Bill would take a decade to come into full effect and would do nothing to solve the immediate problems of rising crime, to tighten Britain’s borders or combat terrorism.
2005-05-13 - Solihull and Warwickshire Guardian - Postal Voting
Author: Caroline Spelman
Summary: What I cannot understand is why the Government ignored the advice of the Electoral Commission months ago that they system was open to abuse and should be reviewed and that some form of voter identification system, as used in Northern Ireland where an NHS or National Insurance Numbers has to be given, be introduced. The Commission has again demanded new safeguards to prevent postal voting fraud. The whole process is undermining confidence in our electoral system.
2004-06-28 - Conservative Party - Labour slips out all-postal ballot plan
Author: Caroline Spelman
Summary: It would appear that they now wish to make all-postal voting the norm in both local and regional government elections. In addition, their plans for extending e-voting are highly contentious given the widespread concern over the security of electronic voting where it has been trialled in the United States and Ireland.
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