Mobile working Toolkit

Parliament to get wireless network

Kable

Published: 09 Aug 2004 12:50 BST

The UK Parliament is to set up a wireless IT network giving remote access to data to politicians from both houses and their staff. The system, which will link up with Parliament's main IT infrastructure, will make data available over mobile phones, hand held PCs and laptops.

Sheila Paterson, procurement manager for the House of Commons, told Government Computing News that work is still at the early stages.

"The specification is still being drafted but it will allow members to have remote access to the system and servers in Parliament," she said. "It will give them access to their data from anywhere in the country. This will be the first time it has been done."

Parliament has sent out a tender notice for suppliers to work on the project. The deadline for responses to the tender is 30 September, 2004.

Paterson acknowledged that there had been some concerns over the system's security, but the project is going ahead due to demands from MPs.

"Security will always be an issue, it won't go away," she said." We will have to mitigate the risk to an acceptable level."