Kevin Brennan MP

Kevin Brennan MP (Labour) MP for Cardiff West. Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Children, Schools and Families.

Email:brennank@parliament.uk Tel: 02920 223207 Office: 33-35 Cathedral Road, Riverside, Cardiff, CF11 9HB

Digital Economy Bill

Not contacted.

Surgeries

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Communications Data Bill

In a letter response to a constituent question, on 23 April 2012 Kevin Brennan wrote:

"I am concerned that we have very little information on what the Government is actually planning, or why they want to do this. Ministers need to explain rapidly and in complete terms what they want to do in terms of internet surveillance, and why. National security and personal privacy are too important to be left to rumours and rows.

The police and security services need to be able to keep up with new technology to deal with serious issues including disrupting terrorist planning, catching paedophile rings or cracking down on organised crime.

But there also need to be strong safeguards to protect people's privacy. We need clear checks and balances on what the police, security services or the government are able to do, so that privacy and security are both protected and so that public confidence and trust in the system is upheld. For example most of us would be strongly opposed to the idea of police officers or intelligence agencies being able to browse the content of everyone's emails.

I also believe that any government proposals need proper consultation and scrutiny so that we can have a proper public debate on any new plans."

Children's Digital Rights‎

Children's minister Kevin Brennan told MPs there would be a five-month delay to the £224m system, ContactPoint Child database system postponed 27 November 2007

"Over the last few months we have been considering the substantial stakeholder feedback we have received and looked at the implications that the resulting proposed changes could have on the system."

"It is clear from the considerable work we have done so far that we will need more time than we originally planned to address the changes to ContactPoint which potential system users suggested."

"The news on Tuesday 20 November of the loss of large volumes of child benefit data from HMRC has raised questions about the safety of large scale personal data in other government systems, including ContactPoint"

..."Delaying the implementation of ContactPoint will enable the independent assessment of security procedures to take place as well as address the changes to ContactPoint that potential system users have told us they need,"

"The fundamental design of ContactPoint will not change; the alterations will make sure the system works even more effectively for users and improves the ability of local authority ContactPoint teams to manage user access."

The full Written Ministerial Statement Discgate‎

IP Issues

Kevin Brennan argues that IP rights holders are being ‘ripped’ off by pirates and believes that there should be more corporate responsibility from search engines that show results to illegitimate sites.

Reference

News

2007-11-28 - The Register - UK database of children delayed

Author: John Oates

Summary: The UK's proposed child database has been delayed after "feedback from stakeholders" and not obviously in response to the government's loss of the UK's child benefit database on two CDs. ... A statement from Kevin Brennan, under-secretary for children, young people and families, said: "Over the last few months we have been considering the substantial stakeholder feedback we have received and looked at the implications that the resulting proposed changes could have on the system. It is clear from the considerable work we have done so far that we will need more time than we originally planned to address the changes to ContactPoint which potential system users suggested." "The change to the timetable will mean that deployment of ContactPoint to the ‘Early Adopters’ local authorities and national partners will be in September or October 2008. It will be deployed to all other local authorities and national partners in 2009, between January and May"

2007-11-27 - Action on Rights for Children - Contactpoint delayed

Summary: Children’s minister Kevin Brennan told MPs there would be a five-month delay to the £224m system, ContactPoint ... Is ContactPoint all about child protection? ... Nevertheless the myth persists. This has to be one of the most successful pieces of spin ever devised: even when the government makes perfectly clear what some of us have been saying all along, journalists keep right on parroting the original mantra.

2007-11-27 - BBC - Child database system postponed

Summary: Children's minister Kevin Brennan told MPs there would be a five-month delay to the £224m system, ContactPoint. The security review was ordered after the loss of child benefit discs.