Danny Alexander MP (Liberal Democrat) MP for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch & Strathspey. Chief Secretary to the Treasury. Former Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. Degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford University.

Contact

http://www.dannyalexander.org.uk/contact.asp

Address: 45 Huntly Street, Inverness IV3 5HR Tel: 01463 711280

Issues

Discgate

Danny Alexander said in a Government's strategy on data protection a shambles 4 May 2008

Commenting on reports that staff at the Department for Work and Pensions have been sending out highly sensitive data in packages that include the passwords, Liberal Democrat Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, Danny Alexander said: "The Government’s strategy for protecting citizens’ personal information is a shambles." "We've had mislaid CDs, lost laptops and now passwords are being circulated with the information they are supposed to protect." "Data protection is being undermined across Whitehall - the very idea that this Government could be responsible for an ID card database is a joke."

Danny Alexander said in a press release 4 February 2008

"The loss of millions of families’ personal details was beyond incompetent yet the Government has gone one better by failing to contact all the families affected."

"It's bad enough that people are now at risk of fraud and identity theft, but the least ministers could do is make a serious effort to contact each family to apologise."

"From losing personal records to wrongly paying tax credits, this bungling Government is failing families across the board."

Identity cards

House of Commons debate Identity Cards 4 December 2006

Given that the huge cost is one of the reasons why so many people are rightly sceptical about the ID cards scheme, why are the Government so unwilling to publish the gateway reviews and come clean about the true accumulated cost of the project?

Freedom of Information

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.

Links

Danny Alexander MP Website
Danny Alexander MP TheyWorkForYou.com
Danny Alexander MP Wikipedia
Danny Alexander MP Liberal Democrats Profile

News

2008-05-09 - Liberal Democrate Press Release - Government's strategy on data protection a shambles: Author: Danny Alexander MP; Summary: Commenting on reports that staff at the Department for Work and Pensions have been sending out highly sensitive data in packages that include the passwords, Liberal Democrat Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, Danny Alexander said: "The Government’s strategy for protecting citizens’ personal information is a shambles." "We've had mislaid CDs, lost laptops and now passwords are being circulated with the information they are supposed to protect." "Data protection is being undermined across Whitehall - the very idea that this Government could be responsible for an ID card database is a joke."

2008-02-04 - Liberal Democrate Press Release - 100,000 families didn't receive letter of apology over lost discs fiasco: Author: Danny Alexander MP; Summary: Over 100,000 families didn’t receive a letter of apology from the Government after their child benefit data was lost last year, according to figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats. After losing the personal details of every child benefit recipient last year, the Chancellor promised to send out a letter informing each of the 7.25 million households of the error and apologising. But 101,500 of the addresses lost were not ‘current’, perhaps because the records had not been updated since a family had moved, so these households have still not yet received a letter. Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, Danny Alexander said: "The loss of millions of families’ personal details was beyond incompetent yet the Government has gone one better by failing to contact all the families affected." "It's bad enough that people are now at risk of fraud and identity theft, but the least ministers could do is make a serious effort to contact each family to apologise." "From losing personal records to wrongly paying tax credits, this bungling Government is failing families across the board."