Shadow DTI minister attacks ecommerce proposals

Alan Duncan, the shadow DTI minister, has urged the government to lighten its ecommerce legislation at a cryptography conference in central London.

Duncan was among a host of high-profile speakers, including his counterpart from the Cabinet, small firms minister Patricia Hewitt, offering government and business perspectives on encryption, Web law enforcement and ecommerce development.

"It didn't need government to get it started, it doesn't need government to keep it going. It could take government to foul it up. It's my duty as part of the opposition to make sure they don't. We want the minimum regulation, the minimum interference and the smallest bill. The one before us now should be filleted down to a quarter of its size," he said.

Duncan added that if the government complies with his demands for less regulation and allows business to regulate itself, his party will back the Bill. Until now the party has blocked the Electronic Communications Bill which has been plagued also with delays and controversy surrounding its alleged human rights infringements and legislation allowing the slowing down of UK ecommerce.

Patricia Hewitt, speaking later in the conference, refused address Duncan's challenge directly. She said that the Bill is still in draft form and is therefore subject to consultation, but at no point did she concede that Labour intends to reduce the regulation included in the Bill which covers the licensing of trusted third parties, electronic signatures and interception of communications.

"All existing laws apply online as well as offline - we will only use powers of regulation when the industry cannot regulate itself," she said.

The "Scrambling for Safety" conference was hosted by the think-tank, Foundation for Information Policy Research.