'Unworkable' Snooping laws delayed for third time

The code of practice, without which the Act is unusable, has already been delayed three times thanks to a wave of protests from the high-tech industry.

Sally Low, policy advisor at the British Chambers of Commerce, said: "They have put back the process because the Commission has been inundated with comments. The most criticism has been received from businesses claiming the code places an enormous burden on them and is unworkable."

David Smith, information commission registrar, confirmed the reports. "We received more comments than expected and the process of going through them all is taking longer than originally thought," he said.

Smith admitted the majority of responses accused the code of being too restrictive on employers. He said the commission was taking the concerns into consideration when drafting the code.

But Yamen Akdeniz, director of Cyber Rights and Cyber Liberties, questioned whether the delay was due to conflicts in the code with regulations set down in RIP.

He told silicon.com: "RIP is a complex issue that needs to be balanced with the Data Protection Commission's codes. The Act deals with interception of email while the Data Commission comes into practice once the data has been stored. The problem is that these two issues conflict and I don't know if there will ever be a unified code."

One peer opposing the legislation, Lord John Cope, was not surprised by the delay.
"This has happened because it is more complicated than they originally realised. They now have to get the wet towels out and do some more careful thinking.

"The whole process of RIP has been like this. The government starts off by over-simplifying the idea and when they look at it in detail they see it is far more complicated. It doesn't surprise me in the least."

The BCC's Low criticised the UK government's handling of ecommerce legislation, and claimed: "This is one issue we're fighting with the Data Commission as it is like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. The UK is very good at overdoing regulations on the ecommerce side of things."