Liberal Democrat manifesto lacks tech details

Nick Clegg has been vague about his party's plans for the IT industry

The Liberal Democrat party launched its manifesto for the general election today, outlining plans for better data protection and increased spending on green IT projects, but coming up short on detail.

The last page of the manifesto briefly mentioned the need to establish government savings through possible IT provisioning cutbacks, but did not go into as much detail as the Tory manifesto released yesterday.

The Liberal Democrats have, in fact, given little indication of what they have in store for the UK technology industry.

The party discusses the need for social and health services to share more data, and puts forward similar proposals for hospitals and the police, but does not give details on how this will be achieved and whether the sharing of data should be underpinned by a central IT system.

Perhaps the most relevant part of the Liberal Democrat manifesto for the technology industry is its extensive proposals for the environment and green technologies.

The party would set up an infrastructure bank to direct private finance to " essential projects" like green energy, and use the "substantial purchasing power of government" to expand green product and technology markets.

The party also said it would begin its term in office with a one-year job creation and green economic stimulus package, which it said would be the first step towards its target for a zero-carbon Britain by 2050.

The manifesto reiterates a commitment to securing a global agreement that will limit the increase in temperatures to below 1.7 degrees Celsius, and argues that this can be done partly by expanding investment in energy technology innovation.

Also in the manifesto are plans to increase funding in science that will also help the creation of a green industry. It argued that the government's science funds should be spent only on "genuinely innovative scientific research", and that more focus needs to be put on educating the science and engineering workforce.