Workshop C: MPs' expenses: the net's role in boosting transparency
Chaired by: Richard Sarson, Freelance Technology Journalist
Heather Brooke, FOI Campaigner and Author
James Crabtree, Managing Editor, Prospect
Chris Clarke, Managing Director, Epoch

The MPs' expenses furore threw the UK political establishment into turmoil, and the implications are still working their way through as the expenses and other rules change and a large number of MPs prepare to leave Parliament at the forthcoming general election.

The exposure of the many failings of our national politicians' expenses claims scheme - not to mention some of the MPs themselves - was due in large part to the introduction of Freedom of Information legislation, plus the campaigning patience and zeal of the journalist, campaigner and author Heather Brooke, who joins our panel today. But what part did the internet play in the story, and what part could it play in the ongoing drive to increase transparency in our political system? Our panel looks at how the speed, openness and collaborative environment of the web is suited to political and social investigation, and how it might contribute in future to further increases in transparency and accountability in our ancient and occasionally outmoded political system.