Colin Challen former Labour MP for Morley & Rothwell first elected 2001.

Issues

Identity cards

Colin Challen is against ID cards, in a letter to the Guardian he said Reforms need to be more realistic 5 June 2009

"repeal ID cards legislation (I was wrong to support it)"

Electronic Voting

House of Commons Electoral Pilots 16 July 2003

I welcome my right hon. Friend's reply because it shows that the pilots are finding new ways to get people involved in our democratic processes. I urge him, however, to read early-day motion 174, in my name, which refers to the potential for fraud in electronic voting methods. There is evidence from the United States, where some of those systems have been used extensively, that there are no proper controls or means of verifying whether fraud or other deficiencies have occurred. The Government need to read that early-day motion very carefully.

Early Day Motion 174 Prevention of fraud in electronic voting systems

That this House believes that no electronic system of voting should be introduced into any British election unless it is accompanied by a verifiable paper trail for every vote cast, which if needs be can be used to address any concerns that may be raised that such electronic systems are faulty, defective or used fraudulently.

Freedom of Information

Sign Early Day Motion No. 2699 Freedom of Information 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."

Open Source Software

Signed Early Day Motion 179 Software in Schools 21 November 2006

That this House congratulates the Open University and other schools, colleges and universities for utilising free and open source software to deliver cost-effective educational benefit not just for their own institutions but also the wider community; and expresses concern that Becta and the Department for Education and Skills, through the use of outdated purchasing frameworks, are effectively denying schools the option of benefiting from both free and open source software and the value and experience small and medium ICT companies could bring to the schools market.

Links

Colin Challen MP website
Colin Challen MP TheyWorkForYou.com
Colin Challen MP Wikipedia

News

2002-11-01 - Guardian - Letters - Offline MPs: Author: Colin Challen MP; Summary: ... Putting to one side the abuse of electronic voting, ...