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Surveillance, broadband, zero hours: Tech policy in a UK hung Parliament

Mixing and matching the party manifesto promises

Business and IT

Every manifesto features a pledge to provide fast broadband to nearly everyone in the next few years, and there is similar cross-party support for the development of hi-tech work around the UK.

If you want to vote for a return to dial-up and having all the tech firms in the south-east, you’re out of luck.

There are some differences. The Conservative manifesto has more on supporting innovators, such as an expansion of start-up loans and investment. Labour focuses more on responsibilities, such as requiring every company to report serious cyber-attacks threatening the national infrastructure. The smaller parties that would support a Tory or Labour government in general would be likely to concur.

Government IT

Government IT policies changed after the last election. Whitehall has moved from – officially at least – big IT deals with big suppliers for bespoke systems to encouragement for SMEs via G-Cloud and multi-purpose systems such as the Gov.uk website (although this has caused its own problems).

However, all the parties have similar things to say in their manifestos about moving more services online, digital by default and the expansion of open data. There are some distinctive ideas: the Conservatives would set up full access to electronic health records (although with an opt-out for sharing), Labour would use online feedback to improve public services and the Lib Dems would let you Skype your GP.

Ovum government analyst Nick Wallace says that the differences are ones of emphasis rather than substance. “The Conservatives would tend to see digital policy as a way of doing more with less, whereas Labour may also try to do things around inclusivity,” he says. “It could just be the same dog washed in either case.”

He adds that the move towards centralising IT in the Cabinet Office and Government Digital Service under the just-ended government reflected civil service thinking. “The role of the politicians is more about which horses they back,” he says. “It’s down to the GDS’s vision, supported by [Cabinet Office minister] Francis Maude with a big pointy stick.”

The Labour manifesto indicates it might decentralise things a little – but that in itself would reflect a school of civil service thought.

Immigration and the EU

IT-reliant businesses often rely on skilled immigrants to fill gaps in their workforce. And this is an area where the parties differ significantly. The Conservatives promised, then failed, to bring net immigration down to the tens of thousands in the Parliament just ended.

As it isn’t possible to control movement of people within the European Union, it clamped down on immigration from outside the EU – something it would continue, retaining an annual cap of 20,700 non-EU skilled economic migrants. The Lib Dems sound more positive, saying the party would “continue to allow high-skill immigration”.

The SNP says that “Scotland needs an immigration policy suited to our specific circumstances and needs”, with the reintroduction of the post-study work visa. Labour proposes that every firm hiring skilled workers from outside the EU (or getting a big government contract) must offer apprenticeships.

Firms trying to recruit from outside the EU will often already have their work cut out. As a result, tech-focused firms generally want easier skilled immigration. “I have never heard anyone in the IT industry express sympathy for the UKIP position,” says Ovum’s Wallace.

As for the UK Independence Party, it sees immigration and the EU as the source of many of Britain’s worries. It is possible that UKIP could help form a government with the Conservatives in the even of no clear winner next month.

If it was up to UKIP alone, skilled immigration would be limited to 50,000 a year from everywhere, including Europe – if Britain voted in favour of a “Brexit” from the EU in an in-out referendum on membership, which UKIP would hold. The Conservative party also plans to offer such a referendum by the end of 2017, unlike Labour or the Lib Dems. However, it is likely to recommend that Britain stays in the EU, whereas UKIP wants Britain out.

Some – but by no means all – business groups and business leaders oppose a referendum on leaving the EU.

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