Whose data is it anyway?

There has rightly been concern about a proposition in the Government’s Bill on Coroners and Justice about making it easier for organisations to share data. Some of the criticism of the Government for bringing forward this proposal has been unfair, given that the idea for it came first from the Information Commissioner, who is after all our independent guardian of our data protection rights.

Any followers of my blog will know that I am serving on the Committee scrutinising this Government Bill and yesterday we debated this data sharing proposal. I’m really pleased to report that the Minister, Bridget Prentice MP, quite openly accepted that the data sharing arrangements have been too widely drawn – and she plans to re-write the offending Clause.

In as much as this is a victory, it is common sense that is the winner. The idea that there are some illogical and unnecessary barriers to legitimate data sharing came from the Information Commissioner himself. He thinks it is reasonable to remove such barriers. I’m prepared to support him in this conclusion.

But when we Committee members took evidence from the Commissioner, Richard Thomas, at the beginning of February it was clear that the Government’s wording for the Clause had gone further than he envisaged. There was even a suggestion that a Minister would be able by Order to abolish the Data Protection Act itself!

So when the debate was held yesterday there were many voices raised in opposition to the Clause in question. As I say, the Minister played a blinder in taking the criticisms on board and agreeing to re-write the Clause. She went further and offered Honourable Members talks on the new wording. I welcome this approach most heartily.

I spoke in the debate and as with my last blog I set out below a link to the Hansard record of my comments which, although brief, did set out a justification for the Clause, its short-comings and some of the elements of what will be needed for an acceptable wording.

The committee moves on next week to only slightly less controversial matters – for example reform of the law on murder!

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmpublic/coroners/090226/pm/90226s05.htm

Not so secret inquests after all

The Public Bill Committee I am serving on is scrutinising the Government’s Coroners & Justice Bill. This includes the Government’s proposal for some “sensitive” inquests to be heard by a High Court Judge without a jury. I must admit, the proposition sounds alarming and a potential threat to our usual democratic openness. Indeed, I saw an article by Henry Porter saying just this.

So it was with some relief that when I studied what was being proposed, and why, I realised that actually this proposal relates to something that would in reality be extremely rare – and extremely serious.  Mind you, I take the view that our freedoms are inviolate and non-divisible and I perfectly well understand arguments about the thin end of the wedge, policy creep and incremental loss of liberties.

I also formed the view, when I had studied the Government’s proposal (it is Clause 11 of the Bill) that whether by design or by accident the Government has pushed the boat out too far. It claims too much control and gives itself too wide a scope for action in its own cause. This is where the legislature should come into its own – holding the executive to account. Give the Government of the day (this is not a party political point) an inch and it will try to take a mile.

If anyone is interested in the arguments for and against what the Government is proposing and would like to read personally what the present position is on “secret inquests”, please take a look at the Hansard record of the debate in the Committee which took place yesterday morning.

I spoke in the debate and I give below the link to the Hansard record at the point where my speech begins. Please don’t think this is vanity – but I do try to set out the case for and against what is being proposed as well as my own suggestions for completely re-writing the Clause in order to keep politicians away from decisions that should really be taken by judges.

The link is:

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmpublic/coroners/090224/am/90224s03.htm

House building

Returning to my theme of helping people through the recession, I had talks yesterday with Gordon Brown and Margaret Beckett (separately) about how we can get house building going again.

I raised the subject following two separate meetings with developers in Stafford who cannot get the finance they need to allow them to start their next projects.

Gordon recognises the problem and showed me that Ministers are willing to “think outside the box” to try to help. He explained that the new Homes & Communities Agency is permitted to buy land from developers if this will help the developer to raise money for the intended project. The Agency may then be a partner with the developer in the project.

Margaret equally said that she is willing to look at specific projects to see what can be done to help them go ahead. I’ve promised to send her details of the schemes that the developers in Stafford told me about.

Of course it’s one thing for the politicians at the top to make a decision on the direction of public policy. It’s quite something else to ensure that the new approach permeates all levels of the public sector. I think individual MPs have a big job to do in this regard. I’m certainly up for the challenge, and as I said before, I want to help people through this recession in any way I can.

when a global economic downturn gets personal

It’s one thing understanding what is happening to the world as banks and other financial institutions self implode, businesses run out of money and people lose their jobs. But when it’s your redundancy notice, the world is altogether a sadder, more worrying place.

As an MP, I’m meeting many people whose jobs and businesses are uncertain. I know that people yearn for some signs of an end to the present difficulties. But there’s no point politicians talking about “green shoots” of recovery before they appear. The responsible thing to do right now is to give help wherever and however we can.

That’s why Governments around the world have had to save banks from collapse, try to stimulate their domestic economies and consider ways of seeing vaulable businesses and jobs through exceptionally lean trading times.

We have had to act. If we hadn’t have taken real action the recession would be deeper and longer. But it has to be action with compassion and with understanding of what people are going through.

At my last advice surgery, a man came to see me about his redundancy before Christmas. He wants my support as he asks Jobcentre Plus to be more imaginative in helping him with relevant training to help him get another job (he’s a driver).

At another meeting in my office recently, a developer came to see me because wherever his bank is lending money, it is not lending on property development deals like the ones he is so good at.

These are worrying times. Lots of people need help and support from their neighbours. Who is my neighbour? I will continue to work hard to help people who live in Stafford constituency, mindful always of my wider responsibilities to everyone who lives in Britain and as far as possible everyone in the world who depends on aid or trade or other international support to be able to improve their lives.

Young people rule!

Last Saturday I was at the results event for Staffordshire’s elections of four YMPs and four Deputies. You can check out the story on my website www.davidkidney.com

What was so exciting about the event was the immense commitment from the candidates (a larger field than in any past year) their supporters and families. The room was buzzing in the run-up to the declaration of the results.  I learned that over 13,000 youngsters voted, again the largest number ever.

The retiring YMPs gave presentations about their work in the past 12 months. There were campaigns against bullying and University tuition fees, campaigns for better transport and things for young people to do. There were great experiences like the UKYP debates in the House of Lords Chamber and the YMP who went to USA and heard Barack Obama’s acceptance speech at the Democrats Convention.

They reminded us all that Staffordshire has other outlets for young people who want to start early getting involved in working for their communities. There’s a County-wide Youth Council and separate youth councils for each district in the Couty.

I was really pleased when Gordon Brown as Chancellor gave councils more money for youth facilities – but on condition the Councillors have to consult young people about what to spend the money on. Today, young people in Staffordshire make the decisions on priorities for spending Youth Opportunities and Youth Capital monies.

And for children and young people in care there’s a separate Youth Council specially to represent the interests of looked after children and give their views to the local authority as their corporate parent.

On top of this, virtually every school has a schools council now and many also have an Eco school council. Some schools have achieved, and others are working towards, the Healthy School status.

There’s a lot of negative reporting of young people but scratch the surface and wherever you look you can find great examples of young people making the best of their own lives and also putting in something that benefits their comminuties.

Feed the world!

Every year as Stafford’s MP I meet the local branch of NFU farmers. On Monday we had this year’s meeting and I tried out on them my argument that we are running into an era where food security will be as significant as energy security.

I wanted to enthuse them and persuade them that their businesses may be about to take a major turn for the better.

I suppose they have seen enough false dawns in their time to get too enthusiastic, and they certainly took their time to chew over my words (they also chewed my ears on other subjects dear to them such as tackling bovine TB more effectively!).

Anyhow, we can all see that the global population is on the up and there are predictions that there will be 3 billion more mouths to feed by the middle of this century. That’s 9 billion humans rather than today’s 6 billion plus.

It’s not as though we shall have half as much agricultural land again as we have got now. In fact, the trend is the other way as more people choose to live urban lives instead of rural ones.

So the challenge is there for all to see – and I argue that for British farmers so too are the business opportunities. What do you reckon? Shouldn’t we be doing more to feed ourselves in Britain and be less dependent on imported food?