MP LAING TACKLES “BIG BROTHER” STATE

Epping Forest MP Eleanor Laing, who also severs as Shadow Minister for Justice, has introduces new Conservative Party policies to protect privacy and prevent intrusion into innocent people’s lives.

Eleanor says: “It is every politician’s duty to safeguard the freedom of the individual citizen. More and more information is being gathered on each and every one of us - but enormous databases waste billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money.”

Eleanor has published a paper, “Reversing the Rise of the Surveillance State” which proposes to:
* Scrap the National Identity Register and ditch the ContactPoint database.
* Review the proposals to monitor adults who take children to school, to sports clubs or the Scouts.
* End the permanent retention of innocent people’s DNA on the National DNA database.
* Prevent councils from using anti-terror laws to spy on local citizens; surveillance could only be used where necessary to stop serious crime.
* Subject all new laws to a ‘privacy’ test, and beef up the role of the Information Commissioner.

Eleanor says: “I am deeply concerned about state intrusion into the lives of my constituents as they go about their everyday business. It cannot be right in this country that we are watched at every turn: driving the car, taking the children to school and even walking the dog. These proposals will protect the privacy of people from the state.”