Election 2010 – Technology Policies at a glance
As the pace hots up on the UK election front, at ScotlandIS we thought we would give you a quick round up of the technology policies from the four main political parties. We've tentatively identified a wish list of key policies, but we'd like to know what you think so do share your views with us.
The Conservative Party wants to
• Create more opportunities for smaller businesses by breaking big IT
projects up into smaller components which they can bid for
• Set up a small IT development team in government that can develop
low-cost IT applications in-house and advise on the procurement of large
projects
• Encourage government departments to use open source software
• To publish expenses, contract and government and quango employee
salary information online
• Provide superfast broadband for "most of the population", using
telegraph poles and ducts currently used only by BT
• Introduce a government app store
• Limit IT projects to £100 million to encourage smaller companies to
get involved
The Liberal Democratic Party wants to
• Offer better government IT procurement, using different approaches
such as cloud computing and open source software
• Create thousands of jobs by investigating in green technology and
infrastructure
• Tackle the way IT is taught in schools by facilitating an exchange of
ideas and innovation between teachers and the IT industry
• Expand broadband provision through a national infrastructure bank
• Support the "creative economy", including video games and hi-tech
businesses
• Support the idea of net neutrality
• Support an overhaul of copyright law
The Labour Party wants to
• Provide universal access to broadband at 2mbps by 2012 and 90% of the
population to have access to next-generation broadband coverage by 2017.
• Liberalise the mobile phone spectrum to enhance 3G coverage and make
it faster to browse the web on mobile phones
• Recruit 20,000 extra undergraduates in science, technology,
engineering and maths subjects
• Introduce an Innovation Investment Fund, directed at low-carbon,
digital, life sciences and advanced manufacturing businesses
• Set up MyGov - a portal where people can arrange every aspect of their
interaction with government
• Tackle the "Digital Divide" by encouraging internet use among
disadvantaged groups
• Place a tax on telephone lines to support the roll out of broadband
• Block filesharers and illegal websites but try to support a free
internet
• Encourage departments to use cloud computing to save up to £3.2
billion annually
The SNP want to
• Offer new, fairer funding arrangements, including fiscal autonomy for
Scotland, allowing them to do more to support jobs and create a more
competitive business environment
• To increase low carbon employment in Scotland by 60,000 by 2020 as
part of our low carbon strategy
• To ensure that growth industries in Scotland, like the games industry
are given the same sort of support as in competitor countries
Having consulted with some of our members, at ScotlandIS our wish list for
technology policies in Scotland is:
Taxation
• To provide tax breaks to encourage ecommerce.
Connectivity
• To facilitate faster roll out of real broadband
Exporting
• To stimulate UK Plc to be a leading export-led digital economy,
encouraging businesses to create innovative digital products for global
markets.
Education
• To invest in the next generation of computer scientists, software and
IT engineers, exciting young people about computing science
• To ensure all schools are properly IT enabled and pupils have access
to web based learning materials.
• To provide a nationwide placement scheme for IT graduates
Datacentres
• To ensure Scotland becomes ‘best in breed’ for datacentres
What do you think of our wish list? What technology policies do you
want to see put in place? Let us know by emailing info@scotlandis.com or commenting on our LinkedIn groups