David BicknellThe prime minister Tony Blair has denied that the Government
needs to regain the trust of business over e-commerce.
"The actual framework for e-commerce is very liberal and as free
of regulation as anywhere in Europe or anywhere in the world," he
said. "No less a person than Bill Gates has expressed that
view."
His comments followed Computer Weekly's report last week
that trust in e-commerce was rated as just four out of 10,
according to a group of industry experts.
The introduction of the IR35 IT contractor tax and widespread
criticism of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIP) Act were
found to have eroded the business community's trust in the
Government over e-business.
But Blair defended the RIP Act. "When information is being
exchanged, the Home Office is perfectly sensible to look at what
the potential difficulties are in terms of international crime and
terrorism," he said.
"This is being faced by all countries around the globe. A lot of
the concerns expressed over RIP are hugely alarmist over what the
Government was intending to do with it, and I think we have taken
care of most of the difficulties that people have," said Blair.
"On IR35, it is nothing to do with electronic commerce or the
dotcom companies. It is simply to make sure that it is only people
who are genuinely self-employed, independent people who take the
benefits of our taxation system."
