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By Polly Raymond, 28 January 1999 00:30

NEWS The UK government has distanced itself from recent demands made by the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) that police be given full access to all Internet communications. NCIS piled into the encryption debate on Monday saying that all encryption keys used to code Internet communications should be handed over to the police so they can monitor the Web for criminal activity. Civil liberties groups say encryption should be the natural right of any individual wishing to keep their communications private and the business community is also against heavy control because it could dampen the growth of ecommerce. The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) - one of the key governmental departments responsible for devising policy on ecommerce and encryption - told Silicon.com yesterday that NCIS's line is "not necessarily the same as that of the government". The DTI spokesman said NCIS is semi-autonomous and is not really part of the government. But this was directly contradicted by a NCIS spokeswoman who said: "NCIS is like a unit of the police force - if you think of the police force as part of the government then yes we are." The Home Office refused to comment on the debate, but Simon Davies, director of rights campaign group, Privacy International, said that the Home Office's position will be identical to that of NCIS. The confusion reflects the overall lack of decision making on the part of the government. Roger Till, director of e-centre, warned the government's inability to deliver a decision on encryption is "extremely detrimental to the UK's progress in ecommerce".