Select Committee Report: All party group expresses concern over IOCA

In a report published this week, the Trade and Industry select committee has demanded the government address concerns expressed by the Internet industry about carrying the financial burden of the proposed Interception of Communications Act (IOCA).

IOCA is featured in the Governments Draft Electronic Communications Bill which the committee has spent the past year scrutinising. It claims the government's proposals raise serious questions about human and civil rights.

The committee adds that the government must take account of "the dissatisfaction expressed about IOCA" and recommends "that the costs incurred on Internet service providers as a result of extending the scope of the Act should be shared on a proportionate basis".

A government official told Silicon.com it expects an industry pool to be set up into which ISPs put different amounts of money according to their size, although it is not ruling out government investment.

In the meantime, the government has told ISPs it will welcome full cost analyses on the possible impact of the legislation, based on the model currently in place in Holland where one in 10,000 dial-up lines are intercepted rather than one in 500 as was originally proposed.

Roland Perry, director of LINX, welcomed the move and said, "This makes it a much more realistic goal for ISPs to provide for and would incur far less cost."

The only ISP that has publicly stated its estimate for the fixed cost of preparing for IOCA so far has been Demon which said it expects to run up a bill of more than £1m (see: 'Wire-tapping laws set to cost UK ISPs millions' http://www.silicon.com/a32246 ).