Industry chief calls for probe into ecommerce Bill

The UK parliamentary ombudsman has been asked to extend the industry deadline for commenting on the draft ecommerce legislation.

Caspar Bowden, director of the Foundation for Information Policy Research, asked the ombudsman to step in, via MP Jeremy Corbyn. The move follows the Department of Trade and Industry's (DTI) decision to allow industry just three weeks to comment on the proposed Bill.
Bowden wants ombudsman Michael Buckley to extend the consultation period to eight weeks - the minimum period recommended by the Cabinet Office.

Bowden told Silicon.com: "I wrote to the DTI to complain and received a brush-off response from a junior member of the ecommerce team - Stephen de Souza. He said that guidelines were only guidelines, but the ombudsman may prove him wrong."

But a spokeswoman for Buckley said it takes between two and three months to decide whether to investigate a request, and investigations only cover cases "where individuals can be proved to have suffered an injustice".