Nick Clegg MP

Nick Clegg MP (Liberal Democrat) MP for Sheffield, Hallam. Full name Nicholas Clegg. Leader of the Liberal Democrats and former Shadow Home Secretary. Nick is married and has two sons. First elected to parliament in 2005 he replaced Richard Allan, a fellow Liberal Democrat who decided to step down.

Education: MA, Anthropology, Cambridge University (1986-1989). Studied political philosophy at the University of Minnesota (1989-1990). MA, European Affairs, College of Europe, Bruges (1991-1992)

Work History: Journalist and lecturer; political consultant; European Commission official 1994-6; Adviser to Sir Leon Brittan, 1996-9.

Digital Economy Bill

To the best of ORG's knowledge, this MP has not yet been contacted.

Surgeries

by appointment – call 0114 230 9002.

Identity cards

BBC News reports in ID card scheme 'to cost £5.6bn' Nick Clegg saying in 8 November 2007

"It is becoming more and more clear that identity cards are going to be a vast waste of taxpayers' money."
"The fact that the cost keeps changing shows how loose a grip the government has got on the finances of this ill-judged scheme."
He said they should be scrapped in favour of "something that will actually cut crime - more police on the street".

Government must be consistent with ID card justification 21 February 2007

"During the passage of the ID cards Bill, we were left with the clear impression that the police simply wouldn't be able to go on arbitrary fishing expeditions.
"It is distressing to see the Prime Minister changing his tune almost week by week when justifying ID cards. First they were for fighting terrorism, then they were for stopping benefit fraud, and now they are for solving crime.
"The public will rightly feel extremely confused if ministers can't make up their minds as to why they want to spend billions of taxpayers' money on something which they can't be consistent about.
"There has yet to be a proper public debate about the Government's desire to create a surveillance state."

Nick Clegg featured in a anti id video. Channel 4 Political Slot: No to ID cards 20 February 2008

... under the proposed id card scheme, the government will start collecting massive amounts of information about each and every one of us. Where you have ever lived, where you where born, your pin number and eventually even your fingerprints. We will have queue up out side registration centres to be checked, they will look at details of our bank and mortgage accounts, and then we will have to pay through the nose for the privileged. No wonder the more people know about this scheme, the less they like it.
... The projected cost of id cards, surprise surprise, keeps going up, they told us it would cost 1.3 billion pounds, but the latest estimate for the whole scheme is 7.5 billion pounds. If we spent that money on extra police we would have far more impact on crime terrorism. This wasteful scheme is an out rage. I promise to do every thing I can to stop it. I personally will refuse to put my details on the register, even if that means going to court. By acting together we can stop this government from forcing us to give them precious personnel information about each and every one of us. Information which fraudsters are gaging to get their hands on.

Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg told BBC Radio 4's World at One 20 February 2007

"We were left clearly with the impression that the police simply wouldn't be able to go on fishing expeditions just with their own say so."
"What is so distressing about this latest justification from the prime minister is that he's changed his tune almost week by week in justifying ID cards.
"First it was to do with terrorism, then he dropped that one. Then it was to do with benefit fraud, then he dropped that one.
"The public will rightly feel extremely confused if the government can't make it's own mind why it wants to spend billions of taxpayers money on something which they can't be consistent about."
He said there had been a lack of debate about whether a "surveillance state" was wanted by the public.

Nick Clegg MP said 30th March 2006

"The introduction of identity cards will usher in one of the most far-reaching changes in British public life in recent times. ... It will revolutionise the capacity of the state to monitor the movements and behaviour of each and every one of us. It erodes privacy, and in extremis it will curtail freedom".

Mr Clegg asked the Minister 17 July 2006

With 88 million personal data records stolen in the last year from Government computer systems in the United States, including 26.5 million army veterans’ records in a single theft, and with reports of civil servants in this country selling hundreds of thousands of records to organised criminals for tax credit fraud, does the Minister agree that holding so much personal information on one single ID card database will—far from dealing with identity theft—be an open invitation to criminals to commit even greater identity fraud?

Data loss: Government like Keystone Cops, says Clegg 22 August 2008

Frankly the Keystone Cops would do a better job running the Home Office and keeping our data safe than this government, and if this government cannot keep the data of thousands of guilty people safe, why on earth should we give them the data of millions of innocent people in an ID card database?

Biometric passport

Nick Clegg is calling for the urgent recall of all the 3 million that have already been issued.

Commenting on the National Audit Office’s report into the new electronic passport microchips, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Nick Clegg MP said:

"Once again this Government’s fascination with whizz-bang technological solutions appears to be running well ahead of what technology is really able to do."
"First we discover that the information on the e-passport chips can easily be hacked into, and now we discover the chips themselves have only a limited shelf life."
"If the Government can’t get this right, why should anyone believe they can launch an immeasurably more complex ID card database?"

UK biometric passports project set back by simple cloning possibilities 22 November 2006

"Three million people now have passports that expose them to a greater risk of identity fraud than before."

National Vehicle Tracking Database

The Guardian 'Big Brother' plan for police to use new road cameras 18 July 2007

"No wonder Douglas Alexander was keen to tone down these proposals, since he must know that public resistance to a road charging scheme will go through the roof if it is based on technology which poses a threat to personal privacy. Bit by bit, vast computer databases are being made inter-operable and yet the government seems to running scared of a full and public debate."

IPRED

Nick Clegg MEP voted against IPRED.

Software Patents

Was not present for the first vote on software patents but as an ex MEP is aware of the issue.

DNA database

Has campaigned on this issue and signed a petition. Nick Clegg explains the campaign

Almost 150,000 children on DNA database 5 November 2007

"These figures underline the shocking extent to which this database has intruded, often without parental consent, into the lives of our children."
"Thousands of these children will have been found guilty of no crime, yet samples of their DNA will remain on file for life."
"The disturbing and illiberal policy of adding a child’s most personal information to a massive government computer system, simply on the grounds of an accusation, must stop immediately."
"The Government has to come up with a proportionate and sensible way of using this technology, not the unfair scattergun approach that currently prevails."

Government guilty of political cowardice over DNA database 1 November 2006

"Ministers have been dismissing Liberal Democrat concerns about misuse of the DNA database for years now. They only have themselves to blame if there is now wider public concern about yet another heavy-handed intrusion into their privacy."
"It is the height of political cowardice that the Government has introduced the largest DNA database in the world, with the fewest checks on its use, without any meaningful debate in the House of Commons."
"No one denies that DNA is a powerful tool to solve crime, nor that the police should have access to a database to pursue offenders. But that is a far cry from Blair's push to hoover up DNA information on great swathes of the innocent British population."

Discgate

Nick Clegg featured in a anti id video. Channel 4 Political Slot: No to ID cards 20 February 2008

The child benefit scandal has made it crystal clear they can not be trusted with our personnel information. In fact this government has lost more of or private data than any government in history. Your information is simply not safe in their hands.

Children's Digital Rights

During prime minister's questions in Parliament Nick Clegg urged an end to the "scandalous fingerprinting" of children at schools 6 February 2008

Early Day Motions

Signed Early Day Motion 263 Identity Cards 06 June 2005

That this House believes that a convincing case for the introduction of compulsory biometric identity cards and a national database has not been made, that the risks involved far outweigh any discernible benefit, that the introduction of identity cards will fundamentally change the relationship between the citizen and the state, diminish personal privacy and threaten civil liberties, that the present proposals do not provide properly costed, proportionate or effective solutions to the problems they are claimed to solve; and calls upon the Government to shelve plans for their introduction.

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.

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.

Unbundling the Local Loop

In 2000 while an MEP he was responsible for piloting legislation through the European Parliament on unbundling the local loop.

Links

News

2008-09-15 - Computing - Lib Dems vote down e-petitions plan
Summary: A bid to commit the Liberal Democrats to an e-petition system capable of vetoing unpopular new laws has been defeated at the party's annual conference in Bournemouth. ... The debate kicked off a conference at which party leader Nick Clegg and shadow chancellor Vince Cable made clear they would seek to ditch remaining delayed components of the NHS computer system, as well as drop the government's ID cards scheme to save money to fund other social objectives, including tax cuts.
2008-02-06 - BBC - Clegg attacks 'surveillance' UK
Summary: Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has accused Gordon Brown of turning Britain into a "surveillance society" during prime minister's questions in the Commons. He also urged an end to the "scandalous fingerprinting" of children at schools and the removal of more than a million innocent people from the DNA database.
2007-11-05 - Liberal Democrats press release - Bugging case highlights extension of surveillance state
Author: Nick Clegg MP
Summary: Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg today called for a rolling back of the surveillance state, following revelations about the bugging of Labour MP Sadiq Khan. Commenting, Nick Clegg said "This incident is the inevitable result of the Government’s continual erosion of individual liberty." "Ministers have set about creating a surveillance state where the words ‘national security’ can be used to justify almost any intrusion into a person’s life." "Many of those MPs who have protested about the bugging of Mr Khan are the ones who supported the Government’s ID card scheme and the retention of the DNA of people who have never been charged with any crime." "By stealth, this Government has given the state unprecedented snooping powers that affect each and every one of us. It is time that these powers were rolled back." Last autumn’s Liberal Democrat conference passed a motion on the surveillance state, including commitments for: The immediate repeal of the Identity Cards Act 2006, The destruction of all DNA samples taken from those not charged or convicted of an offence, Updating and amending the Data Protection Act, The greater regulation of CCTV, A review of the role of the Information Commissioner
2008-01-31 - The Guardian - Our state collects more data than the Stasi ever did. We need to fight back
Author: Timothy Garton Ash
Summary: To trust in the good intentions of our rulers is to put liberty at risk. I'd go to jail rather than accept this kind of ID card. ... Today, the people of East Germany are much less spied upon than the people of Britain. The human rights group Privacy International rates Britain as an "endemic surveillance society", along with China and Russia, whereas Germany scores much better. ... All this from a government which, having collected so much data on us, goes around losing it like a late-night drunk spreading the contents of his pockets down the street. Twenty-five million people's details mislaid by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs; at least 100,000 more on an awol Royal Navy laptop; and so it goes on. ... The Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has said he would go to jail rather than accept an ID card of this intrusive kind. So would I. And so, I believe, would many thousands of our fellow-citizens. (There's a good website called NO2ID where you can join the fray.) Which is why, I suspect, the government won't be so foolish. But we need to draw the line well before ID cards. There are liberties that we have already given away, while sleeping, and we must claim them back.
2008-01-09 - BBC - Brown 'still supports ID cards'
Summary: Gordon Brown has not changed his mind on identity cards despite speculation he is preparing for a U-turn, a home office minister has told the BBC. Meg Hillier said the PM had "made it very clear" he supported the scheme. Tory leader David Cameron has written to Mr Brown asking for clarification after a Commons clash over whether he wants them to be compulsory or not. Lib Dem leader [Nick Clegg said he believed there had been a "significant shift" in the government's position. The row was ignited by an interview Mr Brown gave to a Sunday newspaper in which he said: "Under our proposals there is no compulsion for existing British citizens"
2008-01-02 - eGov monitor - 2008 will be a momentous year for the Liberal Democrats
Author: Nick Clegg MP
Summary: ... In control of their own privacy, not forced to submit personal information to a massive government identity database. ... So we should campaign tirelessly to stop the expensive, invasive and unnecessary Identity Cards scheme in its tracks. The child benefit and learner drivers’ data loss scandals mean there is a looming crisis of public confidence in the government’s capacity to look after their personal information. So let 2008 be the year we bring down the Identity Cards scheme.
2007-12-31 - BBC - Clegg pledging to fight ID cards
Summary: The new Lib Dem leader has pledged to campaign "tirelessly" against "expensive, invasive" ID cards in 2008. Nick Clegg said the recent data loss "scandals" had created a lack of public confidence in the government's ability to look after personal information. His comments were made in his New Year message to the Lib Dem party.
2007-12-24 - The Independent - PM in new pledge to secure databases
Author: Andrew Grice
Summary: Gordon Brown has accepted that the Government will need to bring in new safeguards to restore public confidence in the huge databases held by state-run services. ... His pledge came during a telephone conversation with Nick Clegg in the past week. The new Liberal Democrat leader raised the dangers of pressing ahead with giant databases across the public sector, warning that the Government faced a "serious backlash". He also reiterated his party's objections to a national identity card scheme. Mr Brown supports the idea, but is likely to seek extra safeguards to allay the public's doubts.
2007-11-08 - BBC - ID card scheme 'to cost £5.6bn'
Summary: The projected cost of the identity card scheme will be £5.612bn over the next 10 years, the Home Office says. ... Lib Dem spokesman Nick Clegg said it was a "vast waste of taxpayers' money" which should be spent on more police. ... Mr Clegg, the Lib Dems' home affairs spokesman, said: "It is becoming more and more clear that identity cards are going to be a vast waste of taxpayers' money." "The fact that the cost keeps changing shows how loose a grip the government has got on the finances of this ill-judged scheme." He said they should be scrapped in favour of "something that will actually cut crime - more police on the street".
2007-11-05 - Liberal Democrats press release - Almost 150,000 children on DNA database
Author: Nick Clegg MP
Summary: Almost 150,000 children currently under the age of 16 have their details on the Government’s DNA database, figures uncovered by the Liberal Democrats have shown. The headline figure masks extremely wide variations between forces, with Northamptonshire retaining just 845 DNA profiles of under-16s, whilst West Midlands Police have over 10,000 and the Metropolitan Police have over 16,000. The number of samples taken may be even higher, as figures show the current age of the individual sampled, rather than their age at the time. Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Nick Clegg MP said: "These figures underline the shocking extent to which this database has intruded, often without parental consent, into the lives of our children." "Thousands of these children will have been found guilty of no crime, yet samples of their DNA will remain on file for life." "The disturbing and illiberal policy of adding a child’s most personal information to a massive government computer system, simply on the grounds of an accusation, must stop immediately." "The Government has to come up with a proportionate and sensible way of using this technology, not the unfair scattergun approach that currently prevails."
2007-10-31 - The Guardian - Clegg vows to defy ID cards law
Author: Patrick Wintour
Summary: Nick Clegg, the odds-on favourite to become Liberal Democrat leader, yesterday announced that he will break the law and refuse to provide details of his identity if the government presses ahead with plans to make ID cards compulsory.
2007-10-31 - The Register - Likely Lib-Dem leader in 'no to ID card data' pledge
Author: John Lettice
Summary: Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary Nick Clegg has vowed to break the ID Cards Act by refusing to hand over his personal details when ID cards are made compulsory.
2007-09-20 - Liberal Democrat - Lib Dems call for 'surveillance society' to be curtailed
Summary: The Liberal Democrat Autumn Conference today backed measures to roll back the legislation that has turned Britain into a ‘surveillance society.’ The proposals include commitments for: *The immediate repeal of the Identity Cards Act 2006 *The destruction of all DNA samples taken from those not charged or convicted of an offence *Updating and amending the Data Protection Act *The greater regulation of CCTV *Review the role of the Information Commissioner. Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Nick Clegg MP said: "The Liberal Democrats will make the protection of traditional British liberties and personal privacy a major line of attack in the run up to the next general election. This country needs a champion of liberty now more than ever." "Gordon Brown has attempted to make considerable political gain by striking a new tone on civil liberties, but in reality he remains wedded to an unchanged Blairite agenda that has seen an extraordinary erosion in the liberty of the British people." "Britain has long distinguished itself by its liberal belief in the rights of the individual against the powers of the state. By stealth, this Government has given the state unprecedented snooping powers that affect each and every one of us. It is time that these powers were rolled back."
2007-09-05 - BBC News - 'No plan' for DNA samples for all
Summary: There are no plans to make it compulsory for everyone in the UK to be on the national DNA database, the government has said. The Human Genetics Commission said creating such a huge database would be too expensive and prone to mistakes being made. Civil rights group, Liberty, meanwhile, attacked the proposal as "chilling" and "ripe for abuse". ... Nick Clegg, Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said there was "no earthly reason" why someone who has committed no crime should be on the database - "yet the government is shoving thousands of innocent people's DNA details on to the database every month".
2007-08-21 - The Independent - Liberal Democrats launch attack on Brown's 'surveillance society'
Author: Colin Brown
Summary: Liberal Democrat leaders are to mount an attack on Britain's "surveillance society" that threatens to wreck Gordon Brown's hopes of a cross-party consensus on measures to tackle the threat of terrorism. In a strategic break with the Prime Minister, Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat leader, and his home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg will launch their offensive at their party conference next month. ... Liberal Democrat leaders say Britain is one of the most spied-on nations in the world and will use the conference to launch a campaign to roll back legislation they claim has gone too far. It includes the Identity Cards Act 2006, the creation of a national identity register and proposals for wide ranging data-sharing powers across Whitehall departments.
2007-08-02 - Liberal Democrat - More than one person a minute added to DNA database
Author: Nick Clegg MP
Summary: People are being added to the DNA database at a rate of more than one every minute, according to the Liberal Democrats. The statistic comes amid reports that the Home Office has been urged to allow police to take DNA samples for offences such as dropping litter. In an answer to a Parliamentary Question by Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Nick Clegg MP, the Government admitted that 722,464 profiles were added to the DNA database in 2006-07, the equivalent of one every 45 seconds. Commenting, Nick Clegg said: "The Government’s onward march towards a surveillance state has now become a headlong rush." "They seem determined to hoover up the DNA details of as many people as they can, regardless of guilt or innocence. "We already have by far the largest DNA database in the world, and these figures make it clear just how fast it’s growing." "DNA is a vital tool in the fight against crime, but such a massive database must be subjected to proper scrutiny - especially when it contains details of nearly 150,000 people who were never charged, let alone convicted of an offence."
2007-07-18 - The Guardian - 'Big Brother' plan for police to use new road cameras
Author: Alan Travi
Summary: "Big Brother" plans to automatically hand the police details of the daily journeys of millions of motorists tracked by road pricing cameras across the country were inadvertently disclosed by the Home Office last night. ... The Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, Nick Clegg, said the "unintended act of open government" had revealed the disingenuous attitude of ministers towards public fears about a creeping surveillance state: "No wonder Douglas Alexander was keen to tone down these proposals, since he must know that public resistance to a road charging scheme will go through the roof if it is based on technology which poses a threat to personal privacy. Bit by bit, vast computer databases are being made inter-operable and yet the government seems to running scared of a full and public debate."
2007-07-11 - Liberal Democrats - Information commissioner's warning is a wake up call
Author: Nick Clegg MP
Summary: Responding to a report by the Information Commissioner Richard Thomas that a ‘horrifying’ number of organisations have breached data protection rules, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Nick Clegg MP said: "This latest warning from the Information Commissioner that both private and public bodies are failing to respect the most basic protections of our privacy is a wake-up call. "This comes on top of his earlier observation that we are sleepwalking towards a surveillance state." "Anyone who values our cherished British liberties of privacy and personal freedom will be alarmed by these warnings." "The resources and powers of the Information Commissioner must be urgently strengthened. The Liberal Democrats will be coming forward with new proposals to bolster the protection of our privacy in the autumn."
2007-06-15 - Liberal Democrats - Passport price rise part of attempt to bury ID card costs
Author: Nick Clegg MP
Summary: Commenting on the news that the cost of a British passport is to rise for the third time in less than two years, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Nick Clegg MP said: "Last time I asked, the Government refused to justify its implausible claim that 70 per cent of the cost of ID cards would be absorbed by new passport costs." "This latest price hike suggests the Government is going full steam ahead with its cynical plan to bury ID card costs inside each and every passport."
2007-06-14 - Liberal Democrats - Over 100 children under 10 on DNA database
Author: Nick Clegg MP
Summary: More than one hundred children under the age of 10 have their details stored on the DNA database, the Liberal Democrats have discovered. The figures, uncovered by Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Nick Clegg MP, show that 108 children under 10 are on the database, along with 883,888 people aged between 10 and 17, and 46 people more than 90 years old. Commenting, Nick Clegg said: "The Government’s onward march towards a surveillance state has now become a headlong rush." "As an increasing number of very young children well under the age of criminal responsibility appear on the database it is clear the Government sees no limits to its invasion of our privacy." "Worse still, by harvesting the data of many people who are not even charged with an offence, let alone convicted, the fundamental principle that we are innocent until proven guilty is further undermined." "Why should anyone be on this database if they are entirely innocent of any wrong doing?"
2007-05-17 - Liberal Democrats - DNA revelation another example of home office incompetence
Author: Nick Clegg MP
Summary: Commenting on the news that nearly 200 crimes went undetected for up to 11 years because of failures by Home Office forensic experts, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Nick Clegg MP said: "Once again bad news from the Home Office is being smuggled out long after the problem was first identified. Why did the Home Office not come clean earlier?" "The Government’s reckless use of the DNA database means information is held on tens of thousands of innocent people. But this becomes even more incomprehensible when they can't even process data on the guilty." "This is another example of a database intended to protect the public that turns out to be faulty. With such a lack of transparency or competence, is it any wonder public scepticism about the vast ID database continues to grow?"
2007-05-10 - BBC - ID card costs rise above £5bn
Summary: The official cost of the controversial ID card scheme has risen to £5.31bn. The figures were released as Tony Blair announced his departure, leading to claims from the opposition that the government was "burying bad news". The Tories and Lib Dems also claimed that the Home Office broke the law by releasing the updated figures a month later than they should have. ... Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg said: "It is bad enough that the government seeks to bury bad news behind the camouflage of Tony Blair's announcement." "Breaking the law to do so breaks new ground even for Tony Blair's Labour Party." He added: "The costs are now spiralling out of control. On the grounds of expense alone, the Government should do us all a favour and abandon this great white elephant before it is too late."
2007-05-10 - Liberal Democrats - Government has broken law to bury bad news on ID cards
Author: Nick Clegg MP
Summary: The Government was today accused of breaking the law in an attempt to bury bad news after waiting until the day of Tony Blair’s resignation to publish a report on ID cards that reveals the cost of the project has gone up by £640m since October. The Government had previously refused to publish the report despite the fact that it was breaking the law by doing so. Section 37 of The Identity Cards Act says that a report on the costs of ID Cards must be put before Parliament every six months. However, the Government has ignored that deadline, which would have seen the report published on 9th April. Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Nick Clegg MP said: "It is bad enough that the Government seeks to bury bad news behind the camouflage of Tony Blair's announcement." "Breaking the law to do so breaks new ground even for Tony Blair’s Labour Party." "This bad news has been illegally postponed, and is only now published a full month beyond the statutory deadline. That shows the depths of cynicism and media manipulation to which ministers are now resorting to ram this increasingly unpopular scheme through." "To add insult to injury, the statement itself is a laughable cocktail of statistical sophistry and contradictory claims." "But beyond the smoke and mirrors, one simple statistic remains: the total cost of the ID card project by the Government’s own admission has gone up by £640m since October. The costs are now spiralling out of control. On the grounds of expense alone, the Government should do us all a favour and abandon this great white elephant before it is too late."
2007-05-08 - Black Britain - Govt challenged over DNA samples of innocent black people on national database
Summary: People from black and minority ethnic communities in the UK are three times more likely to have their DNA samples put on the national database, raising serious questions about the criminalisation of innocent people based purely on race. Last week, statistics were supplied by the Govt in response to a Parliamentary Question raised by Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Nick Clegg MP. The figures reveal the number of people who have been arrested and whose DNA has been retained by the police, despite no criminal action being taken.
2007-05-03 - Liberal Democrats - Innocent people from minorities three times more likely to be on DNA database
Author: Nick Clegg MP
Summary: The Liberal Democrats today revealed statistics showing that innocent people from ethnic minorities are three times more likely to have had their DNA samples put on the national database. The figures, which were obtained in a written answer to a Parliamentary Question by Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Nick Clegg MP, show the number of people who are arrested and have their DNA kept by the police, despite no further action being taken. The statistics are broken down by ethnicity and region. In Avon & Somerset, innocent people from ethnic minorities are over eight times more likely to have had their DNA samples taken and in Dorset, Dyfed Powys, Norfolk and Sussex it is five times more likely. A full breakdown by police force is attached. Commenting, Nick Clegg said: "These latest statistics are worrying on two counts. First because they confirm yet again the massive scale of the DNA information held on people who were not even charged with an offence, let alone convicted. This further blurs the fundamental distinction between innocence and guilt that Labour has undermined." "Second, because of the shocking disproportion of DNA information held on members of our ethnic minority communities, even those who have committed no crime." "This will serve to inflame suspicions that our black and ethnic minority communities are being subject to intrusive police surveillance not applied to other communities."
2007-05-01 - Liberal Democrats - Headlong rush towards surveillance state must be stopped
Author: Nick Clegg MP
Summary: Responding to concerns raised by the Information Commissioner Richard Thomas over new developments in CCTV technology, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Nick Clegg MP said: "This Government has got away with the construction of a surveillance state behind the backs of the British people for far too long." "It is extremely welcome that Richard Thomas and others are now speaking out against the headlong rush towards the further deployment of surveillance technologies." "Not only should his warnings be heeded but the powers of his post should be strengthened to act as a counterbalance to the increasing amount of data held by the state on private citizens."
2007-03-26 - Liberal Democrats - March towards surveillance state must be halted
Author: Nick Clegg MP
Summary: Commenting on the Royal Academy of Engineering report into privacy and surveillance, which warns that biometric details could be compromised by terrorists and criminals, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Nick Clegg MP said: "This report confirms that the Government’s fascination with big centralised databases carries long-term dangers." "There is little merit in pouring huge amounts of taxpayers’ money into creating these databases if they not only threaten our privacy but also, as this report predicts, remain vulnerable to being used by terrorists and organised criminals." "The Government must now pause in the construction of the surveillance state, which is happening behind the backs of the British people, and ensure a proper public debate before they proceed further."
2007-03-20 - Liberal Democrats - Passport failures do not justify ID cards
Author: Nick Clegg MP
Summary: Commenting on the news that 10,000 passports were given to bogus applicants last year, including two handed out to convicted terrorists, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Nick Clegg MP said: "Ministers have claimed the Passport Service is the jewel in the Home Office crown, yet this revelation shows that even here there are failings that are worse than we could have possibly feared." "Something surreal is afoot when the Government advertises its own failings in order to make the case for new Labour’s grandiose ID card scheme." "Listening to ministers it would not be a surprise if they soon claimed ID cards would be a solution to bad weather." "A more cool-headed analysis of the worrying rates of passport fraud would conclude that security features and targeted interviews of applicants would tackle the problem more effectively than forcing the whole British population to accept expensive and intrusive ID cards. "This bad news should not be used cynically to justify the creation of an ID card sledgehammer to crack the passport fraud nut."
2007-03-15 - Liberal Democrats - Review of pace should not be an excuse to extend powers
Author: Nick Clegg MP
Summary: Commenting on the announcement of a review of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Nick Clegg MP said: "While it is welcome that the Government is opening up a review of the PACE code, this should not be used as an excuse to push for a significant extension in police powers." "Taking and retaining personal information like fingerprints and DNA requires clear justification." "The burden of proof must remain on the police and the Government to explain the need for any extension of such powers. It should not fall to members of the public to have to prove the case against them."
2007-03-05 - The Mirror - Kids to be fingerprinted at 11
Author: Oonagh Blackman
Summary: Children as young as 11 may have their fingerprints taken when they apply for a passport. Immigration Minister Liam Byrne yesterday confirmed a plan - branded by critics as "sinister" - was being considered to record 11 to 15-year-olds' details for biometric passports and ID cards. ... The Lib Dems' Nick Clegg said: "The Government's determination to build a surveillance state behind the backs of the people is becoming increasingly sinister."
2007-03-04 - BBC - Child fingerprint plan considered
Summary: Proposals to fingerprint children aged 11 to 15 as part of new passport and ID card plans are being considered. Immigration minister Liam Byrne told ITV1's The Sunday Edition the proposals were being "looked at". ... "The determination to build a surveillance state behind the backs of the British people is becoming increasingly sinister," said Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg said. "It is a measure of ministerial arrogance that plans are being laid to fingerprint children as young as 11 without having a public debate first." "As millions of British citizens discover that they will have to pay through the nose for the privilege of being included in a range of government databases, ministers should not be surprised if public resistance becomes ever more vocal." Nick Clegg commented that "Ministers should not be surprised if public resistance becomes ever more vocal"
2007-03-04 - Liberal Democrats - Child fingerprinting sign of government's surveillance state
Author: Nick Clegg MP
Summary: Commenting on reports that children aged 11 to 16 are to have their fingerprints taken and stored on a database when they apply for a passport, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Nick Clegg MP said: "The Government’s determination to build a surveillance state behind the backs of the British people is becoming increasingly sinister." "It is a measure of ministerial arrogance that plans are being laid to fingerprint children as young as 11 without having a public debate first." "As millions of British citizens discover that they will have to pay through the nose for the privilege of being included in a range of Government databases, ministers should not be surprised if public resistance becomes ever more vocal."
2007-02-21 - Liberal Democrats - Government must be consistent with ID card justification
Author: Nick Clegg MP
Summary: Responding to the Prime Minister's announcement that fingerprints from ID cards would be checked against prints taken from 900,000 crime scenes, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Nick Clegg MP said "During the passage of the ID cards Bill, we were left with the clear impression that the police simply wouldn't be able to go on arbitrary fishing expeditions." "It is distressing to see the Prime Minister changing his tune almost week by week when justifying ID cards. First they were for fighting terrorism, then they were for stopping benefit fraud, and now they are for solving crime." "The public will rightly feel extremely confused if ministers can't make up their minds as to why they want to spend billions of taxpayers' money on something which they can't be consistent about." "There has yet to be a proper public debate about the Government's desire to create a surveillance state."
2007-02-07 - Liberal Democrats - E-passport flaws highlight larger ID card risk - Clegg
Author: Nick Clegg MP
Summary: Commenting on the National Audit Office’s report into the new electronic passport microchips, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Nick Clegg MP said:"Once again this Government’s fascination with whizz-bang technological solutions appears to be running well ahead of what technology is really able to do." "First we discover that the information on the e-passport chips can easily be hacked into, and now we discover the chips themselves have only a limited shelf life." "If the Government can’t get this right, why should anyone believe they can launch an immeasurably more complex ID card database?"
2007-02-07 - BBC - Warning over ePassport microchips
Summary: Microchips in Britain's new ePassports only have two-year warranties, a National Audit Office report says. They are so new, no-one knows how long they will last, or how the scanners reading them will work, the NAO said. ... Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg said ePassport chips could be easily hacked in to, saying: "If the government can't get this right, why should anyone believe they can launch an immeasurably more complex ID card database?"
2007-01-29 - eGov monitor - Information is Power – so we must be careful how we use it
Author: Nick Clegg MP
Summary: Nick Clegg MP, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, details why Whitehall and Westminster must adapt to the reality of increased data-sharing. The old axiom that information is power has never been more true than in the modern world. Our current government seems determined to accumulate ever more information and share it ever more widely. But huge government IT projects, such as the DNA database, the NHS spine and of course most particularly ID cards justifiably raise concerns amongst people about the use to which the information being collected will be put.
2007-01-15 - ZDNet - MP: ID card scheme is 'doomed to failure'
Author: Tom Espiner
Summary: Nick Clegg MP, the Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, said that the official study on trials of iris-recognition equipment at airports had highlighted major failures in the technology. Clegg warned that this is further evidence that the ID Cards scheme is "doomed to failure".
2007-01-12 - eGov monior - Evidence mounts that ID card scheme is doomed to failure - Clegg
Summary: Commenting on reports that an official study on trials of iris-recognition equipment at airports highlighted major failures, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Nick Clegg MP said: "Yet again the Government has tried to bury another piece of bad news about its doomed identity cards project." "With each successive announcement it becomes more obvious that the technology simply isn't good enough to sustain such an expensive, illiberal and unnecessary scheme."
2006-12-03 - The Guardian - There's just no escape from these snoops
Author: Henry Porter
Summary: As a rural town installs official surveillance, in London they experiment with secret microphones on the street. Not a nightmare. Paranoid Britain today. ... Why we seem to care so little about this drift into the unknown horrors of a controlled society is a complicated business. It is partly due to what Nick Clegg said about the climate of fear which has paralysed our reason with the finality of a deep brain seizure.
2006-11-27 - eGov monitor - Why we need a Freedom Bill
Author: Nick Clegg MP
Summary: The Liberal Democrat spokesperson on Home Affairs presses the case for the need of a Freedom Bill to protect civil liberties and freedom in our society and argues that more thought should be put in introducing laws. Top Ten to Go. Restrictions on protests in Parliament Square, Identity Cards, Extradition to the US without proper evidence, Police power to impose conditions on public assemblies of 2 people or more, Criminalising trespass in areas designated by the Home Secretary, Control orders, DNA retention of those not charged, or found innocent, Removal of the public interest defence for whistle-blowers, Removal of the right to silence under arrest, Admissibility of hearsay evidence in court
2006-11-22 - EDRI - UK biometric passports project set back by simple cloning possibilities
Summary: UK Government faces now a big problem related to the introduction of the new biometric passports as recently it has been proven these passports can be easily and very cheaply copied by means of a microchip reader that can be legally bought on the Internet. "Three million people now have passports that expose them to a greater risk of identity fraud than before." said Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman.
2006-11-17 - The Register - Shock, horror, outrage - biometric passport data snooped, again
Author: John Lettice
Summary: The biometric passport has been 'cracked' again - but it's the same crack as the old crack (which is not exactly a crack). This time it's the new UK passport, and Liberal Home Affairs spokesman Nick Clegg is calling for the urgent recall of all the 3 million that have already been issued.
2006-11-17 - The Guardian - Recall demand after cloning of new biometric passports
Author: Steve Boggan
Summary: The government was facing demands to recall 3m micro-chipped biometric passports last night after a Guardian investigation which found that they could be electronically attacked and cloned with a £174 microchip reader. Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, demanded a full recall. "Three million people now have passports that expose them to a greater risk of identity fraud than before." "We need an urgent redesign of the biometric passport and a recall of all insecure passports once a new protected design is available. In the interim the government should provide commercially available RFID-shields for passports to those with the insecure design."
2006-011-07 - The Guardian - Blair dismisses civil rights argument against ID cards
Author: Alan Travis
Summary: Tony Blair insisted yesterday that the national identity card scheme should go ahead as a question of "modernity", not civil liberties. Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrats' home affairs spokesman, was also unimpressed, saying that far from tackling identity fraud, all the evidence showed that big government databases become the favoured target for ever more sophisticated organised criminals.
2006-11-06 - BBC - Blair goes on ID card offensive
Summary: For the Liberal Democrats, home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg said: "Tony Blair must be living in cloud-cuckoo land if he seriously believes that the creation of the world's largest identity database will be a magic cure for identity fraud." "All the evidence from Britain and abroad shows that big government databases just become the favoured target for ever more sophisticated organised criminals."
2006-11-01 - Liberal Democrats - Government guilty of political cowardice over DNA database
Author: Nick Clegg MP
Summary: Responding to comments from a pioneer of DNA fingerprinting that the DNA database risks undermining civil rights, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Nick Clegg MP said: "Ministers have been dismissing Liberal Democrat concerns about misuse of the DNA database for years now. They only have themselves to blame if there is now wider public concern about yet another heavy-handed intrusion into their privacy." "It is the height of political cowardice that the Government has introduced the largest DNA database in the world, with the fewest checks on its use, without any meaningful debate in the House of Commons." "No one denies that DNA is a powerful tool to solve crime, nor that the police should have access to a database to pursue offenders. But that is a far cry from Blair's push to hoover up DNA information on great swathes of the innocent British population."
2006-11-01 - Daily Mail - Alarm as innocent people fill DNA database
Summary: Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg also accused ministers of ignoring civil liberties concerns. "I really don't know why the Government is so keen to run totally roughshod over what are perfectly reasonable, legitimate concerns about the overuse and possible abuse of the database," he said.
2006-08-06 - The Guardian - Brown to let shops share ID card data
Author: Gaby Hinsliff
Summary: Gordon Brown is planning a massive expansion of the ID cards project that would widen surveillance of everyday life by allowing high-street businesses to share confidential information with police databases. ... Critics said the ID cards project was already too troubled to be expanded. 'It's a pretty shoddy way of cutting the costs, and it doesn't really alter the fact that all the signs are Whitehall is simply not in a position to deliver even the early stages of an ID card,' said Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat spokesman for home affairs. He said giving the private sector access to centralised databases was a big step towards 'a full surveillance state'.
2006-08-02 - Lynne Featherstone's Blog - DNA
Author: Lynne Featherstone MP
Summary: Have been working with Nick Clegg to do some campaigning to follow up on the DNA database issues I've mentioned before. We've now got a petition people can sign, along with its own DNA petition website.
2006-07-25 - The Guardian - Passport price rise 'a tax on holidaymakers'
Author: Alan Travis
Summary: The cost of a passport is to rise by 29% to £66 from October to pay for the introduction of the first phase of the government's identity card programme. The Liberal Democrats' home affairs spokesman, Nick Clegg, said the "tax on holidaymakers" would come as a severe shock to them. "Many people will simply not understand why they are having to pay for the government's own decision to gather biometric details for ID cards for every one of us," he said. "The Government must now come clean on the full costs we will all have to bear for identity cards which will put even this price increase in the shade."
2006-07-24 - Liberal Democrats - Passport price rise will shock holidaymakers
Author: Nick Clegg MP
Summary: Nick Clegg MP said: "This sharp price increase will come as a shock to many holidaymakers." "Many people will simply not understand why they are having to pay for the Government's own decision to gather biometric details for ID cards for every one of us." "The Government must now come clean on the full costs we will all have to bear in the future for identity cards which will put even this price increase in the shade."
2006-07-18 - The Guardian - Thelma, Louise ... and Joan
Author: Simon Hoggart
Summary: What is it about this government that means it never sees a computer system it doesn't love? ... Nick Clegg, one of the smartest of the Lib Dems, pointed out that 88 million American identities had been stolen, and that British civil servants were flogging our IDs to criminal gangs for purposes of tax fraud. So the huge new data base would be an open invitation to yet more criminals!
2006-07-17 - Lynne Featherstone's Blog - Home Office questions
Author: Lynne Featherstone MP
Summary: ... The new Minister for ID cards, Joan Ryan, has a very hard time defending the indefensible and Nick has some dynamite statistics. 88 million American identities have been stolen. A single master database such as is envisaged for the ID scheme will provide a great big honey pot for criminals to steal from. ...
2006-07-11 - The Register - Home Office stands by ID cards
Summary: Nick Clegg, shadow home secretary for the Liberal Democrats who requested the information be made public, said: "It is disappointing that the government is still trying to cover up the facts about ID cards." "It is a measure of the government's failure to justify ID cards that during the passage of the Bill they never once released a full estimate of its costs and impact." "I hope the Information Tribunal will rule in our favour and publish this vital report. We should not be kept in the dark any longer."
2006-07-11 - The Guardian - Reid urged to ditch ID cards following crucial delay
Summary: The tendering of contracts for the multi-billion-pound programme - which will force every adult in Britain to give fingerprint and iris scans - has been put off until at least the end of the year. ... Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrats' home affairs spokesman, said: "This admission of delay is the first outward sign of the chaos that is engulfing Tony Blair's hare-brained ID card scheme. "John Reid should now come clean. It is only a matter of time before he realises that plans for such a vast identity database are not only flawed in principle but unworkable in practice. "A small delay will not save this project. Only abandoning the whole ID card venture will get the government off the hook."
2006-07-10 - The Guardian - Email leak fuels clamour to scrap ID cards scheme
Author: Tania Branigan
Summary: Opponents of identity cards yesterday stepped up their campaign for the multi-billion pound scheme to be scrapped, after it emerged that the government is planning a scaled-down version of the project so that it can meet a 2008 deadline. ... Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrats' home affairs spokesman, said the government was in denial about the scheme.
2006-06-12 - The Register - Commissioner overrules DWP on ID report
Summary: The Information Commissioner's Office has ordered the Department for Work and Pensions to publish a report on the risks and benefits of identity cards. ... Liberal Democrats home affairs spokesperson Nick Clegg welcomed the verdict. "It is a measure of the government's failure to justify ID cards that during the passage of the bill they never once released a full estimate of its costs and impacts," he said. "Hopefully this decision will lead to a belated revelation of those costs and impacts on the government' of this massive scheme."
2006-05-25 - BBC - Home Office questions ID protest
Summary: Five Liberal Democrat MPs staged a photocall at the Passport Office in Victoria, London, on Wednesday to highlight their argument. Home affairs spokesmen Nick Clegg, Lynne Featherstone and Mark Hunter were joined by party president Simon Hughes and rural affairs spokesman Roger Williams. Mr Clegg, whose own passport is not due for renewal until October 2012, said: "ID cards will be expensive, intrusive and ineffective. "I urge everyone who is concerned about their introduction to join the NO2ID 'Renew for Freedom' campaign and renew their passport over the coming weeks.
2006-05-25 - The Register - Lib Dems set up ID freedom campaign
Summary: Liberal Democrats shadow home secretary Nick Clegg said: "The Liberal Democrats were the only party to vote against the introduction of ID cards, and we're making our opposition clear today by buying ourselves 10 years freedom from this unnecessary scheme."
2006-05-24 - Lynne Featherstone's Blog - ID cards
Author: Lynne Featherstone MP
Summary: .... Nick Clegg, myself , Roger Williams and Mark Hunter (the Home Affairs Front Bench Team) joined by Simon Hughes, party president, go to the Passport Office to hand in our old passports and apply for new ones. This is to illustrate our protest at the Government forcing all of us to go onto the National ID database at the point at which we get a new passport. It doesn't start for a while - but is against their manifesto pledge that the ID card / database would be voluntary. They’ve broken that promise (surprise, surprise) - by linking it to renewing passports are basically making it mandatory. But if you renew your passport before these rules come in – you can put off joining the register for 10 years. But which time who know who will have won an election and maybe scrapped the whole scheme. ...
2006-05-24 - The Guardian - Lib Dems stage mass passport renewal
Author: Matthew Tempest
Summary: A team of Liberal Democrat MPs today renewed their passports en masse - in protest at the government's plans for a compulsory identity database. Nick Clegg and the home affairs team of the party prematurely renewed their passports in a stunt at Westminster passport office to highlight the looming deadline for those wishing to avoid enrolling on the national identity register.
2006-05-11 - The Guardian - Anger as Harman suggests electoral role for ID database
Author: Ros Taylor
Summary: The national identity card database could eventually be used to draw up the electoral roll, according to the minister for constitutional affairs, sparking protests from anti-ID card campaigners. Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said: "Harriet Harman is seriously jumping the gun. In 2010 citizens will only be forced to get an ID card when renewing a passport or driving licence. To make the scheme totally compulsory the government would have to introduce separate primary legislation. The government are obviously planning for their scheme to become compulsory, as this idea would not work with a voluntary scheme."
2006-03-30 - The Register - Tories promise to ditch ID Cards
Author: Mark Ballard
Summary: The Conservatives will scrap ID Cards if they win the 2010 election, shadow home secretary David Davis promised last night. ... "The introduction of identity cards will usher in one of the most far-reaching changes in British public life in recent times," said Nick Clegg, Liberal Democrat MP for Sheffield, Hallam. "It will change, unalterably, the relationship between the individual and the state by massively increasing the quantity and scope of information held centrally by the Government on each and every British citizen," he said. "It will revolutionise the capacity of the state to monitor the movements and behaviour of each and every one of us. It erodes privacy, and in extremis it will curtail freedom," he added.
2006-03-16 - The Guardian - MPs again reject Lords ID card amendments
Summary: The government today succeeded in its latest bid to overturn the Lords' move to keep ID cards voluntary, as senior minister accused peers of frustrating "the will of the people". ... Liberal Democrat Nick Clegg added that a measure applied by "stealth compulsion" could never be described as voluntary. He accused ministers of a "headlong rush towards an uncosted, untested" national ID database and "ramming through illiberal legislation to no obvious end"
2006-03-14 - The Guardian - ID cards survive latest Commons rebellion
Summary: Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg said the dictionary definition of "voluntary" was "done, given or acting of one's own free will" which he said was not what the government was proposing. The ID card plans were one of the most "illiberal follies of recent times," he said.
2005-06-30 - The Guardian - Ego, superego and ID
Author: Nick Clegg
Summary: The government's arrogant case for ID cards succeeded only in making them seem even more impractical and illiberal.
2002-11-27 - The Guardian - Why I'm quitting Europe
Author: Nick Clegg
Summary: Euro MPs are unknown, unloved and sit in a parliament which exercises power on the most tenuous of mandates
2002-09-25 - The Guardian - Liberal thinking
Author: Nick Clegg
Summary: Debate, conflict and discussion are the stuff of fringe meetings at party conferences. And the fringe events at the Lib Dem conference in Brighton this week were no different. Except, in this instance, the questioner was accusing the speaker of fibbing about the number of telephone lines in the UK which could be used to provide broadband, high-speed internet services. Another indignant questioner rose to accuse British Telecom and NTL, sponsors of the fringe event, of being too deep in the "content game". Speakers from both companies vigorously rejected the accusation.
2000-10-26 - The Register - Europe votes on LLU today
Author: Tim Richardson
Summary: In a statement ahead of today's vote Nick Clegg MEP, said: "All available evidence suggests that unbundling of the local loop will provide a sharp boost to the take-up of high speed internet services in Europe, lower costs and vastly increased choice of services for consumers." "This is good news for the consumer and it is good news for Europe's businesses. Today's vote shows that the European Parliament is determined to transform the promise of the new dotcom economy into reality. This is a major step forward allowing Europe to catch up quickly with the US," he said
2000-10-13 - The Register - Europe gives LLU the thumbs up
Author: Tim Richardson
Summary: Europe is another step closer to forcing incumbent telcos to unbundle their local loops by January 2001 after the European Parliament's industry committee yesterday gave its seal of approval to the draft legislation. Nick Clegg, a British MEP responsible for piloting this legislation through the European Parliament, said yesterday: "I am delighted that, after an enormous amount of hard work and discussion, the committee has voted in favour of a rapid adoption of this legislation." "It will ensure that the urgent need for local loop unbundling, much talked about for many years, will finally become a reality from the end of this year." He added: "All available evidence suggests that unbundling of the local loop will provide a sharp boost to the take-up of high speed internet services in Europe, lower costs and vastly increased choice of voice and non-voice services for consumers."
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