§ The Earl of Northeskasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the development of their policy towards electronic commerce will be informed by the recent decision of France to raise the limit of freely usable cryptography from 40-bit to 128-bit keys. [HL842]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Trade and Industry (Lord Sainsbury of Turville)The decision of France concerns the lifting of certain controls on the use and import of cryptographic products and brings it more into alignment with the policy in the UK, where there are no controls on the use of cryptography. There is therefore no need to amend UK policy in this respect.