Eric Pickles MP

Eric Pickles MP (Conservative) MP for Brentwood & Ongar.

Member of the Shadow Cabinet as Communities and Local Government Secretary. Member of EURIM. From August 2005 until July 2007 he was Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party

Digital Economy Bill

To the best of ORG's knowledge, this MP has not yet been spoken to about the Digital Economy Bill.

Surgeries

Add details here

Written Questions

Written question Electoral Commission Committee: Electronic Voting

To ask the honourable Member for Gosport, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission what assessment has been made by the Electoral Commission in the remote electronic voting pilots in the 2007 local elections of (a) the effect on turnout and (b) the value for money of such schemes.

Written question Elections: Information and Communications Technology 18 March 2008

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will bring forward proposals to introduce a right for candidates to request a manual recount of ballot papers in elections where electronic counting equipment is used.

Written question Voting Rights 7 January 2008

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what plans he has to extend the use of (a) e-counting and (b) remote electronic voting to future (i) local, (ii) European Parliament and (iii) general elections.

Written question Elections: ICT 17 October 2007

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what plans his Department has (a) to hold further remote electronic voting pilots, (b) to hold further electronic counting pilots and (c) to extend the use of electronic voting to mainstream elections.

News

2008-06-23 - Conservatives Press Release - The growing surveillance state
Summary: Eric Pickles, the Shadow Local Government and Communities Secretary, has called for "stronger checks and balances" to protect the rights of citizens as the surveillance state grows under Labour. The Local Government Association has urged every council in the country to urgently review the surveillance operations they carry out under anti-terror laws - and Eric stressed there was "real public concern" about the threat to privacy and liberty from misuse of these powers. The Shadow Home Secretary, Dominic Grieve, welcomed the actions of the Local Government Association, saying: "The public will be alarmed that such strong powers introduced under the guise of counter-terrorism are being used by councils. They must be as tightly controlled as if they were being used by the police or security services."
2008-05-25 - Eric Pickles Website - Use technology to make red tape easier for firms is message to MP
Summary: Government departments should be using modern technology to make it easier for businesses to complete forms – that is the message given to Brentwood and Ongar Member of Parliament, Mr Eric Pickles, when he met local business leaders recently. Mr Pickles said: "The representatives I met from Brentwood Chamber of Commerce and the FSB (Federation of Small Businesses) were unanimous in their view that Government departments could significantly reduce the time taken to complete forms simply by using technology to mail merge existing information." "Forms from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) often require the same information repeated including company name, address, registration number etc - all of which data is held by that department already yet every form usually requires the business owner to start from scratch and fill in all those details again."

Links