138. We believe that electronic commerce could have a major impact on the UK economy. The Government is right to identify the need for the UK to become an attractive place to conduct electronic transactions, in order for the international competitiveness of the UK economy to be maintained and improved. We have criticised some of the measures proposed by Government which, in our opinion, might undermine the UK's competitiveness — for instance, in relation to encryption and authentication, both covered in our previous Report on electronic commerce — and we are also concerned at the lack of urgency in some aspects of policy, including the continuing delays in the publication of the Electronic Commerce Bill and the appointment of the e-Envoy. Nevertheless, our overall assessment is that, in terms of the economic aspects of electronic commerce, the Government is slowly moving in the right direction.

139. Aside from economic issues, this Report has considered other dimensions of the electronic commerce debate. Social issues relating to electronic commerce have perhaps been eclipsed by the important, but not over-riding, concerns of industry and law enforcement. We think it imperative that all sections of society share in the potential benefits of electronic commerce — there needs to be increased attention paid by Government to access, skills and consumer protection issues in order to facilitate the achievement of this objective. We have also examined the way in which Government is structured to deal with the issues arising from electronic commerce. It is important that the Government resist the temptation to intervene in relation to every issue arising from electronic commerce but, equally, the Government, especially DTI, should seek to build and retain its capacity to deal with the problems and challenges likely to emerge swiftly and sometimes unexpectedly in this area in future.