Steve Webb MP

Steve Webb MP (Liberal Democrat) MP for Northavon. Started blogging in 2007. In charge of a committee responsible for the Liberal Democrat's next general election manifesto. Won the first Hansard Society award for the politician who has made best use of new technology to encourage participation in politics in 2005.

Identity cards

Said on his blog after Discgate 21 November 2007

Yesterday's fiasco over the missing Child Benefit data raises an awful lot of questions. One of the most obvious in my mind is if one junior official had the authority to download the entire Child Benefit data and send it in the post, how many other people had access to that data? More worryingly, if this is true in HMRC with Child Benefit, what is going to happen when all our medical histories are on a single NHS computer that can be accessed by tens of thousands of people up and down the country? Of if a national ID database is set up which gradually acquires more and more personal data of every single person in the country? Don't get me wrong - I'm a great fan of technology! But surely where government is going to be run on the basis of huge databases of this sort, the security processes involved must be absolutely watertight, and given how difficult that is, we should be wary of any unnecessary accumulation of all our personal data in one place. As for sending the data in the internal post on a couple of unencrypted CDs......

Discgate

"Yesterday's fiasco over the missing Child Benefit data raises an awful lot of questions. One of the most obvious in my mind is if one junior official had the authority to download the entire Child Benefit data and send it in the post, how many other people had access to that data? More worryingly, if this is true in HMRC with Child Benefit, what is going to happen when all our medical histories are on a single NHS computer that can be accessed by tens of thousands of people up and down the country? Of if a national ID database is set up which gradually acquires more and more personal data of every single person in the country? Don't get me wrong - I'm a great fan of technology! But surely where government is going to be run on the basis of huge databases of this sort, the security processes involved must be absolutely watertight, and given how difficult that is, we should be wary of any unnecessary accumulation of all our personal data in one place. As for sending the data in the internal post on a couple of unencrypted CDs..."
"It is shocking that computer misuse is rife in so many Government departments. The idea of Government employees snooping through people's private records is one that will cause alarm."

Also Identity cards and NHS

Software Patents

Written question Software Patent Directive 4 February 2005

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the status is of the EU software patent directive; if she will make it her policy to oppose the directive as it stands; and if she will make a statement.

Links

News

2009-03-25 - Steve Webb MP's Blog - And now they want to know who your friends are...
Author: Steve Webb
Summary: In the lastest twist in the attempts by the government to monitor every aspect of our lives, we now learn that they want to force social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace to reveal who peoples' friends are. As well as wanting access to all our e-mails and phone records, the Home Office has indicated it would find it useful to be able to get lists of peoples' contacts on the internet. However, we are 'assured' that the Government would not be interested in monitoring the content of any communications between people (yeah, right!). ... What this increasingly authoritarian government doesn't seem to understand is that there is such a thing as 'private space'.
2007-12-19 - The Register - Facebook accuses MP of impersonating MP
Author: Lester Haines
Summary: Steve Webb's Facebook account has been suspended after the social networking site decided he "wasn't real". He tried to log on on Monday but was told "his account had been disabled following complaints he didn't really exist". After 36 hours is was reactivated.
2007-12-06 - Steve Webb MP's Blog - Progress on broadband
Author: Steve Webb MP
Summary: Some years ago one of the big issues in my postbag was the lack of broadband internet access across the constituency. When telephone exchanges were initially 'broadband-enabled' it tended to be the big centres of population that were upgraded first ...
2007-11-21 - Steve Webb MP's Blog - Data going missing
Author: Steve Webb MP
Summary: Yesterday's fiasco over the missing Child Benefit data raises an awful lot of questions. One of the most obvious in my mind is if one junior official had the authority to download the entire Child Benefit data and send it in the post, how many other people had access to that data? More worryingly, if this is true in HMRC with Child Benefit, what is going to happen when all our medical histories are on a single NHS computer that can be accessed by tens of thousands of people up and down the country? Of if a national ID database is set up which gradually acquires more and more personal data of every single person in the country? Don't get me wrong - I'm a great fan of technology! But surely where government is going to be run on the basis of huge databases of this sort, the security processes involved must be absolutely watertight, and given how difficult that is, we should be wary of any unnecessary accumulation of all our personal data in one place. As for sending the data in the internal post on a couple of unencrypted CDs......
2007-08-09 - Steve Webb blog - MPs and Facebook
Author: Steve Webb
Summary: Just for a bit of light relief, I asked my friend Francis Churchill to have a look at Facebook for me to see how many MPs of different parties had got involved. This is how the BBC are running the results. I was encouraged to see that my nagging of my Lib Dem colleagues appears to be paying off - although one (who shall remain nameless) has already gone on and come off again because his Facebook profile generated too much traffic!
2007-06-26 - Steve Webb blog - Open for comment!
Author: Steve Webb
Summary: When I first set up this blog at the start of the year I took the decision to restrict comments to those who were registered with Blogger, thereby ensuring that I would know who was commenting. However, for two reasons I have now changed my mind and am opening up this blog for anyone to comment on.
2007-04-19 - Steve Webb blog - Does the Internet increase political engagement?
Author: Steve Webb
Summary: Spoke last night at a Hansard Society meeting about the role of the Internet in generating political engagement. ... My angle was somewhat different - over the years I've put a lot of time and effort into using e-mail, and more recently social network sites like Facebook - to open up a two-way flow of communication with local people. Young people are particularly likely to use social networking sites and are also particularly likely not to vote. So if I can be available through these routes as well as more traditional ones, then maybe the Internet can make a difference.
2007-01-05 - No geek is an island - And long may the puns continue
Author: Will Howells
Summary: Steve Webb, the Lib Dem MP for Northavon, has a track record of being down with new-fangled interweb technologies, which led to him winning the Hansard Society’s E-Democracy Award a couple of years ago. It should be little surprise then that he has become the latest of the party’s MPs to take up blogging, with his puntastic new site The Webb log. Welcome to the blogosphere.
2007-01-03 - Steve Webb Blog - First Thoughts
Author: Steve Webb MP
Summary: I've finally given in! For some years I've been actively exchanging e-mails with thousands of my Northavon constituents, asking for their views and hearing what they have to say. But it's taken me until now to give in to becoming a blogger. I've been inspired by some of my colleagues who have been blogging for some time (notably Lynne Featherstone MP) and I hope to use this online diary to let you know when interesting things happen in my work as an MP or when I just want to get something off my chest. I've no idea whether I have an "inner blogger", but New Year 2007 seemed like a good time to find out!
2005-02-09 - Steve Webb - Northavon MP Wins E-Democracy Award
Author: Steve Webb MP
Summary: Northavon MP Steve Webb has won the first Hansard Society award for the politician who has made best use of new technology to encourage participation in politics. The MP was given the political innovation award for for his use of e-mail and text messaging to establish a dialogue with his constituents. He has been running a series of email and texting surveys, seeking the views of a group of more than 3,000 local residents. Clare Ettinghausen, Director of the Hansard Society said: "Steve Webb is the very deserving winner for his innovative use of text messaging and email to gauge his constituents’ opinions on topical issues." Commenting after the awards ceremony, Steve Webb said: "I am honoured to have been presented with this award. It would simply not have been possible without the willingness of more than 3,000 of my constituents who spare their time to email and text me with their views and experiences on a wide range of topics, and I would like to express my thanks to them for this."
2004-08-28 - The Register - Civil servants sacked over Net p0rn
Author: Lucy Sherriff
Summary: More than 200 civil servants in the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) have been disciplined for surfing the Web for porn during office hours. In the last eight months the staff accessed over two million pornographic images, including 18,000 involving child abuse. ... the Liberal Democrats want all 227 of the offending bureaucrats to be dismissed. Party spokesman Steve Webb said that by accessing the porn, the civil servants involved were "assisting filth and paedophiles", according to the BBC. He said that such activity is a security risk, and called for "a zero tolerance approach".
2004-04-26 - The Register - UK gov holds EDS to account over crap CSA system
Author: John Oates
Summary: Another IT cock-up. Staff at the Child Support Agency are using pocket calculators to work out what people owe, thanks to the comprehensive failure of its IT system from EDS. Professor Steve Webb, LibDem shadow work and pensions spokesman, said: "It is scandalous that the Government continues to fritter away huge sums of money trying to put the CSA's house in order. Under Labour the CSA has gone from bad to worse. We now have two different systems that don't work properly and thousands of lone parents missing out. Lone parents have been let down and left out of pocket." "It's high time the CSA was scrapped and the Inland Revenue was allowed to do the sums and make sure people pay up on time."
2004-04-07 - The Register - UK gov computer misuse is 'rife'
Author: Tim Richardson
Summary: The Liberal Democrats claim computer misuse among Government department is "rife" resulting in "serious security" concerns. Steve Webb MP, Lib Dem shadow work and pensions secretary: "It is shocking that computer misuse is rife in so many Government departments. The idea of Government employees snooping through people's private records is one that will cause alarm." "Apart from the moral and ethical issues of computer misuse, these figures show serious security and cost problems. By accessing all sorts of inappropriate websites, some civil servants risk infecting their computers with viruses which costs taxpayers' money to fix and leaves computers vulnerable to security breaches." Webb is calling for a clear policy on computer misuse within Government departments and stiffer penalties for civil servants who step out of line.
1999-06-16 - The Register - CUT slams Government Net complacency
Author: Tim Richardson
Summary: The Campaign for Unmetered Telecommunications (CUT) has written to the British government to express its disappointment at last week's debate on the cost of Net access in the UK. Steve Webb MP, who initiated the debate, made an excellent speech which covered almost all current issues and made some very pointed remarks about what could happen in the future.
1999-06-09 - The Register - UK users will get unmetered Net access within three months
Author: Tim Richardson
Summary: The revelation that the UK telecoms industry has finally buckled under consumer pressure came during an intervention in the House of Commons today. As Liberal Democrat Steve Webb was taking the government to task about the cost of Net access, Bruce intervened. He said there was no need for tighter regulation because the market was working. To prove his point he said that within weeks, a telco would introduce "fixed-rate unlimited access" to the Net.
1999-06-09 - The Register - MP demands cheaper net access from UK government
Author: Tim Richardson
Summary: Net users in the UK have a new political champion willing to take their fight for better and cheaper access right to the very top of Government. Steve Webb, Liberal Democrat MP for Northavon near Bristol, spoke for all of the UK's ten million Netizens today as he quizzed the Government about the cost of Net access in the UK.
1999-06-07 - The Register - UK Govt called to account for Net charges
Author: Tim Richardson
Summary: The Government is to be tackled in the House of Commons about the cost of Net access in the UK. Liberal Democrat MP Steve Webb has half-an-hour on Wednesday to find out the Government's position on the cost of Net access and whether it believes anything needs to be done.
1999-06-07 - The Register - Euro Net strike "great success" claims organiser
Author: Tim Richardson
Summary: On Wednesday, Liberal Democrat MP Steve Webb is to tackle the Government in the House of Commons on whether it thinks Europe's rigid telco pricing structure means it is lagging behind the US on the take-up of wired technologies.
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