MPs don't want email

MPs could block email campaigns from lobby groups because they can't cope with the growing number they get every day.

Some MPs have complained that their in-boxes are spammed with mail from pressure groups and emails from voters not even in their constituency.

The House of Commons Information Committee estimates that on average MPs receive between 10 and 20 per cent of their correspondence via email, but for some MPs dealing with voters waging an email campaign that can mean tens of thousands of emails every day.

Now MPs are being told to install software that will limit the length of emails and block mail from specific addresses.

A recent report called Digital Technology: Working for Parliament and the Public, prepared by the House of Commons Information Committee, recommends that parliament trials filtering technologies to block mass emails from pressure groups.

The report also suggests that email is vetted by intermediaries who send it on to email-phobic MPs by fax.

Constituents could also be restricted to sending email within specified "opening hours", directing queries via a website and providing a postal address with each email to ensure they really do live within an MP's constituency.

The report said: "The ease with which constituents and others can send email is seen by members as both an opportunity and as a threat in that it could generate a demand members cannot meet with existing structures and demands."

Not surprisingly, mandatory use of electronic communication across parliament has been ruled out as far too controversial a move.

Philip Virgo, general secretary of UK high-tech lobby group Eurim, agreed with the MPs' position, saying lobbyists were more likely to get a response if they submitted a handwritten letter.

"The truth of the matter is email is not efficient if you have a heavy workload. It requires more work to respond to email than a letter or fax. With an email you have to call it up, response time could be slow, there are usually attachments, you can't see it laid out on the screen. It's less efficient than paper."

However, the report concludes that "the reputation of members - and of the House - could be damaged by a refusal to embrace such technologies at a time when they are becoming standard in most other organisations."

But despite the Information Committee's stark warning, all MPs interviewed for the report on digital technology were contacted by letter.