Consultation
Parts I and II
11.The first consultation on most of the matters covered by Parts I and II was undertaken by the previous administration in March 1997.
12.The Government announced its response to that consultation, and its policy on the provision of cryptography services, in a parliamentary statement by Mrs Barbara Roche, then Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Trade and Industry, on 27 April 1998 (Hansard, HoC, column 27; available on the Parliament website at www.parliament.uk/commons.htm).
13.A broader consultation - “Building Confidence in Electronic Commerce: A Consultation Document” (URN 99/642) (available on the DTI website at www.dti.gov.uk/cii/elec/elec_com.html) - was launched on 5 March 1999. A summary of the responses to this consultation (URN 99/891) is available on the DTI website at www.dti.gov.uk/cii/elec/conrep.htm.
14.The Trade and Industry Select Committee of the House of Commons published a report on the matters covered by the consultation document on 18 May 1999 (“Building Confidence in Electronic Commerce: The Government’s Proposals”, HC 187; available on the Parliament website at www.parliament.uk/commons/ selcom/t&ihome.htm).
15.A draft of the Electronic Communications Bill was published for consultation on 23 July 1999 in the document “Promoting Electronic Commerce” (Cm 4417) available on the DTI website at: www.dti.gov.uk/cii/elec/ecbill.html. This document also contained the Government’s response to the Trade and Industry Select Committee report. A summary of the responses to this consultation (URN 99/1218) is also available on the DTI website (www.dti.gov.uk/cii/elec/billsumm.html) along with copies of the responses themselves (www.dti.gov.uk/cii/elec/ecbill_responses.html).
16.On 3 November 1999, the Trade and Industry Select Committee of the House of Commons published a report on the draft Electronic Communications Bill (HC 862, available on the Parliament website). The Government response was published on 18 January (HC 168, also available on the Parliament website).
Part III
17.There have been three formal consultations on the revised licence modification procedure provided for in Part III of the Act. The first, “Licence Modification Procedure: Proposed Changes to the Telecommunications Act 1984” (URN 98/1049), was issued in May 1998; the second, “Licence Modification Procedure: Updated Proposals for Changes to the Telecommunications Act 1984” (URN 99/945), in March 1999 (further details available on the DTI website at www.dti.gov.uk/cii/regulation.html). The third was undertaken as part of the consultation on the draft Electronic Communications Bill.
18.Responses to all of these consultation exercises have contributed to the measures set out in the Act.
