§ Mr. ToddTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on progress on the implementation of the European electronic signatures directive. [6458]
§ Mr. AlexanderMy right hon. Friend the then Secretary of State announced on 28 March 2001,Official Report, columns 652–53W, that we were issuing a consultation document on the implementation of those parts of the directive which had not been implemented by the Electronic Communications Act 2000. We received 54 responses to the consultation and a number of issues were raised. Some respondents thought that these were of sufficient weight to require further discussion. Points were raised about the data protection requirements which I believe could only be resolved by a further discussion on how they should be implemented. I will therefore issue in the next few weeks a summary of the consultation, a note of the conclusions we have drawn from the consultation and a draft of the regulations. We will seek comments on the implementation of data protection elements. I believe that this process will enable us to introduce regulations in the near future which will best take into account the views of those most directly impacted by this directive. We will also publish the responses to the consultation on the DTI's website.