House of Commons
Friday 11 July 1997
The House met at half-past Nine o'clock
PRAYERS
[Madam Speaker in the Chair]
Points of Order
9.34 am
Mrs. Cheryl Gillan (Chesham and Amersham): On a point of order, Madam Speaker. Earlier this week, I tabled some written questions to the Department of Trade and Industry for reply on a named day. They included a question that was very pertinent to today's debate--it asked the Department to define its meaning of the information society.
Together with 14 other questions tabled at that time, I received answers, on the Members' board, at the Division last night. Those answers were either not substantive or merely contained the words:
The Library has told me that, since the general election, the DTI has answered a mere 46 written questions in full, whereas the Treasury, for example, has managed to answer 88. I look to you, Madam Speaker, as the defender of the rights of non-Ministers, to call the DTI to account. I sincerely fear that the rights of Members of Parliament are being infringed by the arrogant way in which Departments are treating named-day questions.
The Minister for Science, Energy and Industry (Mr. John Battle):
Further to that point of order, Madam Speaker. I apologise to the hon. Member for Chesham and Amersham (Mrs. Gillan) for the fact that she has not received replies to her questions. My intention is that questions should be answered as quickly as possible. Indeed, I recall the question she tabled on the information society and I know that I have already signed the reply to it. I hope that she will get it speedily. I accept that she has not received it in time for today's debate and I apologise to her for that.
I signed a substantial number of the answers to the 44 written questions to which the hon. Lady referred. The Department has received a large number of wide-ranging and detailed questions. I undertake to go back to the Department and ensure that questions are answered as openly and as promptly as possible.
Madam Speaker:
I am sure that the hon. Member for Chesham and Amersham (Mrs. Gillan) appreciates the Minister's response. Perhaps, during the debate, inquiries could be made about why she has not received a reply to her questions.
Mrs. Gillan:
Further to that point of order, Madam Speaker.
Madam Speaker:
Order. I cannot allow a debate on the issue, but I will allow the hon. Lady to respond to the Minister.
Mrs. Gillan:
I thank the Minister for his generous response. Obviously, there has been some breakdown. However, I reiterate that many of the questions that were not answered by the named day were simple questions on matters of fact. That is what is so alarming about what is happening in the DTI at the moment.
Madam Speaker:
As I explained yesterday, the Department has complied with the Standing Order. However, I hope that urgent inquiries will be made into the matter.
Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.--[Mr. Betts.]
The Minister for Science, Energy and Industry (Mr. John Battle):
One of the questions tabled by the hon. Member for Chesham and Amersham (Mrs. Gillan) asked what is the information society. That remains an open question--the debate is about exactly that. Perhaps our discussion across the Chamber will clarify the matter.
It is almost commonplace to say that we have moved from the industrial age to the information age. As we move into the next century, we will be carried forward into the age of the digital economy. Some describe it as moving from the age of manpower to the age of the brainpower economy. There have been incredible developments in computing and telecommunications and we are still in the midst of those step changes.
Mr. Michael Fallon (Sevenoaks):
I thank the hon. Gentleman for giving way so early in the debate. I did not mean to interrupt him so early, but he has just said something rather interesting. Will he confirm that it is the Government's view that we are now in the post-industrial age? Is he speaking for the Government when he says that?
Mr. Battle:
That question is amazing. I will explain later in my speech why I believe that we are living in a new age--the digital age, which takes us even beyond the information age--and the answer will be spelt out. Sometimes, however, generic terms are used loosely. Perhaps the hon. Gentleman does not appreciate the pace of change. In the early 1950s, when I was a youngster, one could look on the back of a cornflakes box and see predictions about what our lives would be like. I recall predictions that we would move between buildings through glass bubbles, but I do not recall anything about mobile telephones, which were not even conceived of in the 1950s. That demonstrates the type of qualitative shift that has occurred.
The hon. Member for Sevenoaks (Mr. Fallon) asked whether we have left the industrial age. There is still plenty of industry around, but we are being carried forward to new, unanticipated shapes, and that is the important aspect. Twenty years ago, who would have imagined that there would be a computer on everyone's desk, much less the ability to communicate on the move or to access or send e-mail while on a train journey? Those technologies have the potential to be far reaching in their implications, to transform our lives and to take us from the industrial age--as it has classically been described in the history books--to the information and digital age.
Consider the incredible potential of the Internet and the world wide web, for example. Only a few years ago, it was the exclusive domain of a few physicists and a laboratory tool. Today, 50 million people in 150 countries are connected to the information super-highway. It is projected that, by 2000, which is only a few years away, there will be 250 million subscribers.
When people ask me about the information society--the hon. Member for Chesham and Amersham asked me about it today--I sometimes say that I have some doubts
about using that term, because it is rather loose. The term underlines, however, the important social and economic dimensions of the information revolution. To date, the information age has been about access to vast amounts of information; entertainment at the touch of a button; and the ability to interact with and manipulate large quantities of data, to conduct remote transactions, to communicate on the move, to participate in distance learning and electronic commerce and to send and receive e-mail. Mobile solutions are the future.
There was a great communications revolution 450 years ago with the advent of the Gutenberg printing press, which made one book available to a mass market. Within the next generation, every book ever written, every symphony ever composed, every film ever made and every painting ever painted will be, with the click of a mouse, within the reach of all children. That is the type of step change that is occurring. I am even tempted to say that the next generation of children will communicate their own symphonies to other children through the new information technologies.
The information society is interactive and it has real potential to transform the economic and social fabric of our lives in the next century. Already, we can buy books and clothing on the Internet, where we can also buy our shopping from supermarkets or obtain business advice. We can start a company today and be dealing in Japan, Germany or Brazil next week, all without leaving our home. It once took years to achieve such goals.
Mr. Ian Bruce (South Dorset):
I had hoped to be able to congratulate the Government on being part of the move towards making information much more accessible via e-mail. I have performed a small search and discovered that, a few e-mail directories ago, one Minister was listed and that, in the subsequent directory, three Ministers and Departments were listed. In the directory just published by the new Government, however, the trend is backwards. The Government must be the only organisation who have fewer people on e-mail now than before. What will the Government do to ensure that every Minister and Ministry can be contacted by e-mail?
Mr. Battle:
I hope that I am on that directory, and I shall check to ensure that I am.
Mr. Battle:
I was on e-mail as a Back Bencher, and I have three e-mail numbers now--for my duties as a constituency Member of Parliament and as a Minister--which causes some confusion. I am very keen to promote e-mail as a means of communication and access. I am tempted to say that I will check the directory. Although every Minister in the Department of Trade and Industry is on e-mail, I cannot speak for other Departments. I will check the directory and encourage all Ministers to be listed on e-mail so that they can be contacted through it.
"I will reply to the hon. Member as soon as possible."
I am sorry to have to raise this matter as a point of order again, but, as you know, I gave you notification yesterday of a point of order that covered the same issue--the DTI not replying to questions tabled by Members in all honesty and searching for an answer, in particular one relevant to today's proceedings.
9.38 am
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