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By Polly Raymond, 20 October 1998 17:18

NEWS The UK Government has revealed its plans to make Oftel the regulatory body for national cryptography services. Stephen Pride, who is responsible for the Department of Trade's action on the millennium bug and ecommerce, spoke in place of the absent DTI minister Barbara Roche, at a conference organised by the International Commerce eXchange (ICX). He confirmed: "Oftel will be the licensing regulator of cryptographic services." Cryptography is the coding system used to make online transactions secure. Experts consider It vital to ensure that goods and services are traded safely over the Internet and is therefore seen as key to the future of ecommerce. The UK government recently issued an ecommerce white paper which ties in with this later announcement. A spokesman for Oftel said: "We know the government is considering Oftel as a regulator but we haven't yet had it confirmed." He said that Oftel approves of the government's proactive stance towards ecommerce and a sound cryptography framework saying: "We'll happily take on the licensing regulation as and when we're officially told to do so." According to Pride, the DTI will issue a consultation document which will outline the specific roles to be assigned to Oftel. These include developing formal legal recognition of electronic signatures and modernising Internet laws. At the moment electronic signatures are not recognised by UK courts as proof of identity in contract law. According to analysts this will have to change if ecommerce is to become feasible and it is this and other sticking points government hopes to iron over in the next few months. Pride added that nothing will happen until legislation is outlined in the Queen's speech to Parliament in November.