Note: Slight alterations have been made to the original communication from John Smith at the DTI.
This afternoon the Government published a document "promoting Electronic Commerce" a consultation on draft legislation and the Governments responses to the Trade and Industry Committee's report. This includes a draft of the UK "Electronic Communications Bill"
The relevant web sites are:
The consultation document Building Confidence in Electronic Commerce (URN 99/642) is available on the DTI website in both PDF and HTML formats.
The Summary of Responses (URN 99/891) is also on the website.
The Draft Electronic Communications Bill itself is on the DTI website.
The Competitiveness White Paper (CM 4176), which was published in December 1998, sets out the Government's overall aim to make the UK the best environment for electronic trading by 2002.
On 27 April 1998, the Government made a statement on electronic commerce (which appears in Column 27 of the Commons Hansard for that date). This can also be accessed via the DTI website.
In October 1998, the DTI published a policy statement on information technology called Net benefits (URN 98/895).
The Trade and Industry Select Committee has recently undertaken an inquiry into electronic commerce. They published a report of their findings on 19 May (HC 817,ISBN 0 10 231099 8).
The Performance and Innovation Unit of the Cabinet Office have published a report on encryption and law enforcement (CABI 199-4 278/9905/D16).
On 23 June, the Home Office published a consultation document entitled Interception of Communications in the United Kingdom (CM 4368, ISBN 0-10-143682-3).
As some of you know already the Commission have also published the Council's Common Position on the Directive for Electronic Signatures, along with the Statement of the Councils Reasons. The two docs are 7634/1/99 REV 1, and 7634/1/99 REV 1 ADD1 respectively.
These will be made available on the Commission web site. Back to front page
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Last Revised: July 23 1999