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Mrs. Gillan: That oral rendering of the written answer contained more information than the Minister's opening speech. I am extremely grateful to him--it proves that he can read rapidly. He could have arranged for that reply to be delivered to me, rather than throw it so disgracefully across the Table. However, that is the sort of arrogance that permeates the Government.
My hon. Friend the Member for South Dorset made an extremely good speech. He is frustrated because he is not tuned in and turned on. I hope that that will soon be remedied. We put up with poor facilities in this House. It is certainly not the life of luxury that people might believe it to be. It is very difficult to get office space, as the Minister said. I have great sympathy with him for having had to start his life on a shelf. I started my life on a somewhat bigger shelf, but at least it was inside a room rather than in a corridor. The House needs to move into the next century. I am sure that we can agree on that, if nothing else. It is important that we make progress towards having the finest and most modern communications and technology available to hon. Members and, by virtue of that, available to the wider public and our constituents.
I feel sorry for the hon. Member for Norwich, North (Dr. Gibson), who is waiting patiently for his Adjournment debate. It will come shortly. I note that the hon. Member for Rotherham (Mr. MacShane) is not in his place. He made a speech on freedom of information which I felt was slightly off topic. He seemed to be contemplating the possibility of the Minister without Portfolio, the hon. Member for Hartlepool (Mr. Mandelson) planting chips--
Mrs. Roche:
I am sure that the hon. Lady would wish to know that my hon. Friend the Member for Rotherham (Mr. MacShane) has left the Chamber to take a telephone call because his son is not very well.
Mrs. Gillan:
I am grateful to the Minister for that information. I was not implying that the hon. Member for Rotherham was neglecting his duties. He has been in the Chamber all morning. I am sure that we all wish his son a speedy recovery.
There is not an area of our lives that is not touched by information technology. The information society initiative started by my hon. Friend the Member for Esher and Walton was adopted as the overall strategy of the Conservative Government, who developed it to enable the United Kingdom to take its place as a leading nation in the growth of the information society. I praise British Telecom for the help that it gave us in moving forward with that initiative.
The Labour Government have been entrusted with the continued development of the information society initiative, yet in all their policy documents produced over 18 years in opposition and two and a half months in government they have never appeared fully to understand the implications for the business climate in which we operate.
Having called the debate, I hope that the Under- Secretary will listen to some of the questions that I shall pose. I want her to have the courage to tear up her civil service speech, as the Minister did, and reply directly in the interests of the population, which the Labour party claims has given it such a great mandate. Anything less than direct responses to my questions will be a clear sign that the Government can only carry forward the well-laid Conservative plans and that they have failed to consider the challenges posed by the rapidly changing face of technology.
I should like to start by paying tribute to the Cabinet Office's central IT unit. Today is the last day of its week-long exhibition in the Upper Waiting Hall, which has
been mentioned several times in the debate. My first question for the Minister for Small Firms, Trade and Industry is how and with what resources the Government Direct programme will be implemented. We have the prospectus that the previous Government produced on it, but I should like her to tell us how the Government plan to install the networks and equipment displayed in the exhibition.
While I visited the exhibition, it became clear to me not only that the technology is available and will present no problem, but that the problem will be with government. The Government must work on a cross-departmental basis to maximise that technology. I therefore hope that the Minister will state directly what the Government will do to facilitate such co-operation and tell us what clout the Department of Trade and Industry has in ensuring that there will be cross-departmental co-operation.
The harnessing of science has improved the quality of our environment, schooling, communications, mobility, health and security and it has certainly changed the way in which we work, live and communicate. One of the most important matters, however, is how the cost equation can be improved to allow ordinary citizens to benefit from the advantages that such progress offers.
I think that the Minister for Science, Energy and Industry agrees that the cost equation is an extremely important matter, because so many technologies still bear a high cost. One of the Government's continuing roles should be to help to find ways to reduce the costs of delivery and to widen access to new technology. The Government should not create separate networks with terminals only in such worthy places as libraries, which are visited by a minority, but integrate public service access with private services to reach a wider audience at an affordable price.
I agree with the Minister for Science, Energy and Industry that the information society should be inclusive. I believe that the information society should include the disabled and accommodate the computer illiterate. In her reply, I hope that the Minister for Small Firms, Trade and Industry will be able to answer my question about whether the Government will implement the provisions in the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 that apply to access but have not yet been implemented. I hope that she will also give us a timetable for implementation.
The new Government have made much of the morality of our society and attempted to place themselves on the moral high ground with such intellectually bankrupt statements as, "We will govern for the many and not the few." By the very proposals that they are working on in so many spheres, such a statement may well become the petard on which Ministers are hoist. If the Government are to govern for the many and not the few, they will, for example, ignore disabled people's access to information technology, because the disabled are the few and not the many.
Another example is the use of in-lobby technology for the delivery and distribution of social security payments. It is arguable that placing terminals in post offices or retail outlets will enable those on benefits to collect more easily their share of taxpayers' money and result in cost savings to government and convenience to recipients of welfare, but can Ministers justify the high investment that will be made in only 20 per cent. of the population, some of whom will undoubtedly be the feckless and workshy,
whereas the vast majority of hard-working people will receive no help towards their inclusion in the information society?
Technology will certainly turn clients of the welfare state into efficient consumers of the social security budget, but will it discriminate against hard-working individuals who fend for themselves? It will not if action is taken to integrate those services with other services, particularly those in the private sector. I therefore hope that the junior Minister will tell us her Department's policy on that matter, the stage it has reached in its thinking and what action it will take to ensure that a fully integrated service delivery scheme is achieved. In plain words, what are the plans for multi-service points?
I want to consider the regulation and policing of the new technologies, a subject considered at length at the Bonn conference the Minister for Science, Energy and Industry attended. I and many colleagues were disappointed that the Minister did not refer to that conference--
Mrs. Gillan:
Only in an intervention; it was not a substantive part of the hon. Gentleman's speech.
Mr. Battle:
I was generous in accepting interventions and, according to the marks on my notes, I think it was in response to one of the hon. Lady's interventions that I referred to the conference. The points that I made about the need to ensure that information was confidential were lifted from the discussions at Bonn. I assured the House that the declaration, which I hope all hon. Members will read and make use of, would be in the Library. What more does the hon. Lady want?
Mrs. Gillan:
I will tell the hon. Gentleman what more I want. I have had the advantage of seeing the ministerial declaration from the Bonn conference. It is a non-binding declaration and the follow-up is so trivial that it consists of only three points. I cannot believe that it took two days to produce a non-binding agreement which includes in its follow-up the statement:
Mr. Battle:
The hon. Lady should read the rest of it.
Mrs. Gillan:
I have, but it does not contain much other than aspirations.
Mr. Battle:
What, then, is the hon. Lady's view on the proposals in it for encryption?
"Ministers welcome suggestions made by every country to organise special events during 1998".
This document will make good reading for all hon. Members when a copy has been placed in the Library.
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