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By Sonya Rabbitte, 13 October 2000 14:30

NEWS Faced with the mammoth task of putting government services online and providing public internet education and access he was instrumental in outlining and implementing the government's recent UK Online initiative. One of Allan's key roles was to develop relations between government and the IT industry, no easy task as he explained in an interview with silicon.com earlier this year. He said: "It's not for the government to instruct private sector companies on what they should do but certainly it's something that's part of good citizenship, getting involved in the local community. I hope companies would feel it is a worthwhile thing to do, but it's certainly not something that the government will start issuing regulations on." Allan said his hands were also tied on other contentious issues, such as internet security. Speaking to silicon.com after a rash of high-profile security breaches including Barclays and Powergen, Allan said that while it was a crucial matter, the government was not in a position to legislate. "I accept that trust in handling data is an important part of ecommerce, but I'm not going to leap in and say government must do more. The last thing industry needs is for us to come in and implement a new swathe of regulations. This is something where there are already clear standards and guidelines. Yes it's something that is important for ecommerce in the UK but the answer is not more regulation." But he was proactive in bringing other debates to the table, calling for more women in technology and a much needed image revamp for the IT industry. He outlined plans for government online services to incorporate voice and Braille capabilities, and promoted digital TV as an internet medium for disadvantaged sections of society. Outlining his plans for government e-commerce, shortly after his appointment, he said: "It is a revolution. There will be different jobs that require different skills. Civil servants will get interesting and exciting jobs, and this is the technology that will allow this to happen."