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Snooping Bill: Critics gain Chamber of Commerce support

By Sonya Rabbitte

Published: Monday 12 June 2000

The British Chamber of Commerce (BCC) and the London School of Economics (LSE) will release a report today highlighting new evidence of the damage the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIP) Bill will have on British ecommerce.

Chris Humphries, director general of the BCC, told silicon.com that his institution and the LSE commissioned the report to prove the Bill is a serious threat to British business. The report comes as the House of Lords meets today for to debate the issue.

He said: "We can now produce real evidence to the House of Lords of what the general implications of the Bill on businesses will be, and why they should challenge the wording in the Bill to protect our ability to compete effectively on the global stage."

Humphries criticised the proposed legislation in an open letter to the Home Secretary last week, saying it represented a serious invasion of commercial privacy. His response was supported in a statement released by the Institute of Directors (IoD) on Friday.

Jim Norton, director of e-policy at the IoD, echoed Humphries' earlier criticism that the Bill could stunt growth of British ecommerce.

Norton said: "The UK stance on this Bill is worrying many companies - especially multinationals who contrast the proposed UK legislation against far more business-friendly proposals in Ireland, France and Germany and even the USA."

A leading anti-RIP lobbyist welcomed news of the report, telling silicon.com that at the House of Lords' third hearing, the Home Office minister Charles Clarke had requested lobby groups to offer such evidence.

The lobbyist, who didn't want to be named, agreed that passing the Bill in its current state could have severe economic implications.

He told silicon.com: "Those affected are primarily international financial sector groups who need client confidentiality against government espionage as well as against hackers. But it is a subject they don't like to talk about publicly, they won't wait for the implications, they will just move their business instead."

He said that he hopes the committee will take its time over today's debate to unravel the problems and find solutions.