Steven Baker: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will assess the (a) short and (b) long-term effects of quantitative easing on levels of employment.
Steven Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what his policy is on the export of (a) arms and (b) crowd control devices to foreign governments which his Department identifies as non-democratic or oppressive.
Steven Baker: I support the clause. We have heard a great deal this afternoon about balance; in particular, the balance between evidence and principle has come out in hon. Members’ remarks. Consideration of that balance speaks very much to the nature of the clause. A lot of the talk has been about evidence, but it struck me that it has also been a conversation about counterfactuals. How many crimes will...
Steven Baker: I am most grateful to the hon. Lady for that clarification; nevertheless, I say that that principle stands in stark contrast to the notion of innocent until proven guilty. The clause is a balance. It is already a balance between the principle of innocent until proven guilty and, knowing what the hon. Lady has told us, concern that we might not detect certain crimes. It is by no means a...
Steven Baker: I am struggling to see why the hon. Gentleman does not object in principle to the retention of DNA for everyone who has been arrested but not convicted.
Steven Baker: The hon. Member for Eltham mentioned the cost of searches and the pressure on police budgets. I infer from the Minister’s remarks that there actually would not be a cost associated with speculative searches. Can he confirm what I infer?
Steven Baker: Listening to the hon. Gentleman, and comparing the amendment with the original text, it is not clear why he wants to make the marginal change between: “Nothing in this section prevents a speculative search” and mandating a speculative search in all cases. He said that he knows that the police want to secure convictions—that is the implication that I draw from his remarks—so why does...
Steven Baker: Could you tell us the headlines? What are the prime objectives of CCTV regulation, in your view?
Steven Baker: Do you think that the area of fingerprinting children is one where we have allowed ourselves to be too dazzled by the possibilities of technology? It seems to me that we risk depersonalising children from a very young age by subjecting them to technology. Do you agree, and do you think that that has profound risks?
Steven Baker: Do you agree that there is now an automatic tendency for technology to advance and for collecting more and more data about people?
Steven Baker: Mr Frankel, do you think that the package of changes in the Bill increases the accountability of the public sector?
Steven Baker: Are there any areas where you feel that the Bill could be improved or expanded to support freedom of information?
Steven Baker: As a software engineer, I am very familiar with open-source software licensing. Do you think that some kind of open-source licence should be mandated for these data sets—something like Creative Commons?
Steven Baker: Would you agree that this is vital to making transparency and accountability work?
Steven Baker: Does my hon. Friend agree that high-speed rail has the potential to be a profoundly bad economic decision for the whole country?
Steven Baker: Do you think overall that the proposals provide enough protection for vulnerable people?
Steven Baker: May I ask you about the categories that are being removed from the list of regulated activities? Do you have any concerns there, or are you content?
Steven Baker: Since you mentioned supervision, would you agree that if a vetting process is too simplistic it tends to undermine the personal responsibility of supervisors and employers for knowing who their staff are, what they are doing and so on?
Steven Baker: With that in mind, my final question for now is about volunteers. There is general cross-party consensus that our society needs more volunteering. Do you agree that volunteers can be put off by vetting and, if so, what sort of measures would you suggest for voluntary groups?
Steven Baker: Sir Roger, just to pick up something you mentioned a few minutes ago, you talked about soft intelligence. That sounds like a material factor in deciding the course of what people are allowed to do. I am afraid that I do not know what it is. Could you just walk me through what soft intelligence is and how it comes to be recorded?