The government needs to do more to encourage UK
companies to invest in IT systems, according the chair of
theConservative Technology
Forum.
Malcolm Harbour, who is also part of the West Midlands
Conservative MEP team, said that compared with other countries in
Europe, the UK "under-invests" in technology.
He said that the Labour government had allowed investment in
technology to slip down its list of priorities.
"The government started off with intentions of giving technology
a high priority, but it has become a bit more disaffected over the
years. It is sometimes rather difficult to see exactly what
direction their policy is now going in," he said.
Harbour said he would like to see public procurement being used
more strategically. "We would like to see public procurement put
more into play as a vehicle for encouraging technological
investment," he said.
The Conservative policy for IT is based on "David Cameron's
themes", with a focus on localising services, Harbour said.
"We would like to see how technology can be used to support
bringing more responsibility to local communities and citizens, and
allowing them to make more decisions and access services at a local
level," he said.
"Trends in technology systems seem to be working in favour of
that approach, whereas they seem to be going against having a very
centralised approach."
Two main issues the Conservatives will be focusing on are
security, including issues such as
e-crime and privacy, as the government looks at putting more
citizen information on national databases. "I am not sure we are
really doing enough to protect our critical national IT
infrastructure," Harbour said.