Martin in IT first

3.08.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 24th Jun 2008

CHELTENHAM MP Martin Horwood today became the first MP to use a computer during parliamentary proceedings. The occasion was the first day of the committee stage deliberations on the Climate Change Bill and Martin took his place in Committee Room 9 of the House of Commons as Lib Dem shadow environment minister. He was able to log on because the Climate Change Bill has been selected to pilot the use of laptops in parliamentary committees. Martin was recognised by environment minister Phil Woolas as the first member to take up the opportunity although Conservative David Maclean later staked his claim too.

Commenting Martin said:

"I'm surprised to have found myself the first MP to use a laptop in a parliamentary committee. For a start, it's amazing that it's taken until 2008 to introduce this small innovation. The House of Commons seems to be just about coming to terms with the twentieth century while the rest of the world is getting on with the twenty first."

"But I'm also surprised more MPs didn't take up the offer. It seemed too good an opportunity to miss to me. In theory, I can now check a minister's claim on the internet while he's speaking and challenge him if he's talking nonsense. On something as important and complex as the Climate Change Bill, it could be really very useful indeed. "

"I think my Dad might have been proud of me. He was part of the team that built the world's first programmable digital computer, Colossus, at GCHQ's wartime predecessor Bletchley Park. More than sixty years on I'm pleased to have been the first to take a modern descendant of Colossus into parliamentary history."