Response to Your Freedom

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg: I just want to thank everyone who has posted comments, suggestions, ideas, polemic, criticism, on the Your Freedom website.

It’s been a really exciting new way of doing things. We’ve had 150,000 people visit the website; we’ve had 7,000 suggestions of rules that should be repealled; of liberties that have been taken away; of laws that should be scrapped; of daft bureaucracy that makes life difficult for businesses. And some of the ideas are ideas we’re looking at very very actively straight away.

Whether it's on the comments you made about the vetting and barring scheme; on the way in which people's details are held on the DNA database; on the proportional use of CCTV and many other ideas. We’re looking at them seriously and it's make a real difference.

Of course there are other suggestions which aren’t going to be taken up by this government; whether it’s, I don't know, the introduction of the death penalty or changing the smoking ban, but at least the debate is now really alive. And I think that’s the most significant thing of all.

This your freedom website shows that people aren't indifferent to the way that you’re governed; that people do want to get stuck in; people do want to make their voice heard. So I hope you'll continue with more suggestions. I hope you’ll continue with more criticisms of daft or unnecessary rules which are on the statute book, which should be scrapped.

It makes a huge difference for us to hear directly from you what your ideas are. We’re looking at them, we're going to respond, I will keep responding, at frequent intervals on some of the suggestions that have been made.

So let the debate continue. I hope that you have found it as helpful as we have to be able to have this new Your Freedom website available to us all and I thank you very much for all the suggestions you have already made on the website.

Date: Wed Jul 14 14:36:34 BST 2010