Henry Bellingham MP (Conservative) MP for North West Norfolk. Shadow Minister for the Department of Constitutional Affairs. Member of the All Party Internet Group. He studied Law at Cambridge and served as a barrister for 8 years.

Issues

E-Voting

House of Commons debate Postal Votes 6 March 2007

Given that a staggering one in seven postal votes in last year's local elections in Tower Hamlets may have been fraudulent, does the Minister support Sir Alistair Graham's call for the Government to abandon next May's internet and telephone voting trials? Are not Ministers ignoring one hard truth: once ballot papers are allowed to leave polling stations, the opportunities for fraud multiply and the secrecy of the ballot is compromised? Is it any wonder that the Council of Europe, better known for investigating elections in Belarus and Albania, is threatening to send monitors to the UK? [1]

Broadband

Signed Early Day Motion 50 access to the internet 23 November 2004

That this House calls on the Government to acknowledge that, while it has announced that broadband coverage is approaching 95 per cent. of the population, it is still mainly at data speeds which are so slow that in other countries they would not be recognised as being broadband; notes that less than half the population has access to the internet in their homes; further notes that information technology skills in the UK are the lowest in the most recent OECD list of skills in developed countries; and calls on the Government to be less complacent and self-congratulatory about the development of broadband in Britain.

Signed Early Day Motion 265 broadband access 3 December 2002

That this House notes the increasing importance of broadband to the UK; notes that there are approximately 5,500 exchanges in the UK of which approximately 1,200 have now been enabled to provide ADSL broadband via BT, the majority of which are located in urban areas; further notes that many rural businesses are unable to access affordable broadband services and are therefore at a commercial disadvantage to urban-based competitors; notes the campaign of the Country Land and Business Association in seeking the faster roll-out of affordable broadband in rural areas and commends the CLA and others for generating increased levels of interest in this area; calls upon BT and other infrastructure providers to be transparent and open in their promotion of the current and future availability of affordable broadband in rural areas; encourages all concerned to work with Government and other stakeholders to facilitate further roll-out; urges the Government to maximise the opportunities for its own departments to co-ordinate their efforts in providing this infrastructure; and encourages all levels of Government to facilitate projects offering higher bandwidth than ADSL in rural areas.

Links

Henry Bellingham MP Website
Henry Bellingham MP TheyWorkForYou.com
Henry Bellingham MP Conservative Profile
Henry Bellingham MP Early Day Motions

News

2007-03-08 - Guardian - MPs at odds over freedom of information: Author: David Hencke; Summary: MPs are at loggerheads over the future direction of freedom of information laws, with some seeking to exempt parliament from the regulations and others trying to prevent the government from curbing the scope of the legislation. ... They also condemned ministers for attempting to make it easier for public authorities and government departments to reject requests by including the cost of consulting time - when civil servants and ministers decide whether the information could be released - in the £600 limit for FoI requests. Requests that would cost more than that to produce can automatically be refused. MPs protesting at the new curbs include ex-Labour minister Don Touhig, ex-arts minister Mark Fisher and former Cabinet Office minister Peter Kilfoyle. They were joined by Richard Shepherd MP for Aldridge, Brownhills; Henry Bellingham MP for Norfolk North West, and Liberal Democrats, Norman Baker MP for Lewes and Tim Farron MP for Westmoreland and Lonsdale.

2003-02-18 - BBC - MPs back broadband campaign: Summary: Four Norfolk MPs are backing a campaign to bring faster internet access to rural communities. Gillian Shephard, Henry Bellingham, Norman Lamb and Keith Simpson are among 100 MPs who have signed a House of Commons early day motion demanding broadband for countryside businesses.