Stephen McPartland is a former British Conservative Party Member of Parliament for Stevenage from 2010 to 2024. He is the author of the McPartland Review into Cyber Security as an enabler of Economic Growth, is a strategic consultant and non-executive specialist in risk, governance, Cyber Security and digital sustainability.
Stephen was born in Liverpool on 9th August 1976. He lives in Stevenage with his wife Emma who was a Special Educational Needs Co-Ordinator (SENCo) at a local primary school and provides expert advice at tribunals. He is an avid reader and a football fan, often watching Stevenage play, and supports a number of locally-based charity organisations in Stevenage.
In Parliament, Stephen held a number of roles, including being appointed as Security Minister in 2022 at the same time being made a privy councillor. In 2017 he was elected as Chairman of the Regulatory Reform Select Committee, so becoming a member of the Liaison Select Committee, and was also a member of the Finance Select Committee. His final position was as a member of the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy until he retired from Parliament.
Throughout his career in Parliament, Stephen was also actively involved with the running of several All Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs), including as Chairman of the Respiratory Health APPG and Vice-Chair of the Disability APPG.
Stephen has been outspoken on welfare issues and is considered an expert on the technical changes, leading the successful campaigns against changes to Tax Credits and protecting the self employed against changes to Employers National Insurance Contributions. He also led a campaign to protect leaseholders from the devastating bills they face for remediating historic fire safety costs. Stephen has worked with a range of groups to try and make our building s safer and the costs fairer for those affected. The McPartland-Smith amendments are named after him.
He has worked closely with Government to deliver change and has succeeded in delivering a number of legislative changes, for example, asthma inhalers being made available in school first aid kits and worked closely with with Rt Hon Sir Oliver Heald to campaign for Finns Law, to provide our emergency service animals with greater protection after Police Dog Finn was stabbed in Stevenage.. Stephen had a range of policy interests, including the application of technology.
Locally, Stephen secured hundreds of millions of pounds of infrastructure investment from the Government for Stevenage, ranging from the rebuilding of our local hospital, school rebuilds and refurbishments, new GP surgeries, more affordable homes and a new Platform at Stevenage Station, to name but a few projects.
Prior to being elected an MP, Stephen was the Director of Membership for British American Business (the US Chamber of Commerce), based in London. Stephen studied for his first degree in History at the University of Liverpool, graduating in 1997. He studied for an MSc in Technology Management at Liverpool John Moores University the following year.