Election special: Liberal Democrats discuss tech manifesto

John Thurso

The main UK political parties have now released their manifestos, and V3.co.uk was keen to get a better idea of the different technology plans each has put forward for citizens, society and the IT industry in general.

In the third of our tech election specials, we interviewed Liberal Democrat MP and shadow business secretary John Thurso via email.

The interview follows that of Labour MP Stephen Timms, minister for Digital Britain and financial secretary to the Treasury, and Conservative MP and shadow culture secretary Jeremy Hunt.

V3.co.uk: How does the Liberal Democrat party plan to increase open-source take-up in the sector?
John Thurso: The Labour government spends £16bn a year on IT, but has a very poor record on IT procurement and has regularly been criticised by the National Audit Office. The Liberal Democrats will improve government IT procurement, investigating the potential of different approaches such as cloud computing and open-source software.

Does the party believe that open-source is a better alternative to proprietary software, and if so why?
Open-source software can be cheaper than proprietary or bespoke software and we believe that government should consider open-source solutions in all IT procurement. The Liberal Democrats will conduct a full review of IT procurement procedures, and work with industry to improve cross-government working practices and save money.

The HMRC recently announced it would start outsourcing IT work to India. The decision is a first for the department, and breaks the traditional public sector mould of restricting outsourcing partnerships to UK-based companies. What is the Liberal Democrat view on public sector offshoring?
No comment.

The Liberal Democrats support a monthly 50p landline levy for universal broadband proposed by Labour, and oppose the Conservative Party's BBC licence fee approach. But could the tax disadvantage the elderly, who might never use broadband but would still have to pay more for their phone services?
High-speed broadband will be vital to the future prosperity of the UK economy, and will enable consumers to access exciting new services. We believe that some public investment will be needed to ensure that remote and rural areas of the country don't miss out. We support the principle of the broadband tax proposed by the government, but we have some concerns over how it will be implemented and the government's plans for using the money. We believe that further exemptions should be offered for pensioners and the least well-off members of society, that the money raised through the tax should be used solely for the purposes of rolling out broadband services and the tax removed once this purpose has been fulfilled, and that investment should be targeted first at those areas least likely to be provided for by the market.