OUT-LAW.COM offers a summary of what the manifestos of Labour, the
Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats and the SNP have to say about
e-business and technology in Britain. Labour is promising
improvements in broad; Torys would scrap IR35.
Labour
On broadband, the manifesto states:
"We want the UK to have the most extensive
and competitive broadband market in the G7 by 2005, with
significantly increased broadband connections to schools,
libraries, further education colleges and universities. One of the
barriers to achieving this goal may be the fragmentation of demand,
and one of the ways government is looking to tackle this would be
by aggregating demand for bandwidth in the public sector in ways
likely to stimulate investment by the public sector, particularly
in rural areas. We will also need to benchmark the UK's performance
against other countries and keep under review the need for further
interventions and incentives to stimulate the market, especially
outside major urban and business centres."
The Labour manifesto also expresses a desire to modernise UK
infrastructure for an information age. This includes installing the
best competitive environment, effective regulation, and continued
public and private investment in the technologies of the future. As
well as the broadband policies outlined above, Labour would strive
to ensure internet access in every household in the country.
Conservatives
Most significantly, the party wants to repeal the controversial
IR35 legislation. The IR35 legislation treats small businesses in
the knowledge-based sector as “disguised employees” for tax and NI
purposes, thereby preventing them from operating on similar terms
to their larger competitors. Recently, the Professional Contractors
Group, which lobbied against the tax, lost its case for judicial
review of the legislation.
The Conservatives will review the operation of the Regulation of
Investigatory Powers Act, which came into force in October 2000.
The Act became controversial by setting out the powers of
interception of communications and giving law enforcement
authorities the power to demand the keys to encrypted data. The
manifesto adds that the party is in favour of the legislation in
principle. The party adds that it will “free up” the IT sector and
“nurture and support” people engaged in the new economy.
On broadband, the Conservatives say the UK is lagging behind in
development and that a Conservative government would initiate a
review of the telecom market structure to ensure fair and open
access to local networks.
The manifesto states:
"Despite the importance of successfully
rolling out broadband access the government's approach has failed.
One of its key roles, through Oftel, should be opening up the local
telecommunications network to competition, enabling all operators
to offer a wide range of voice and data services directly to end
users. This will not be achieved speedily and we lag behind our
European competitors. The next Conservative government will make
allocating the licences to ensure comprehensive coverage a priority
and consult industry on the appropriate mechanism which does not
undermine investment in the accompanying products."
Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrats manifesto makes no real mention of policy
on broadband technology. The manifesto states:
"The Liberal Democrats are committed to
maintaining an environment that will allow the potential of
e-commerce, privacy, taxation/tariffs and law enforcement to ensure
the UK is a leader in e-business. But the key issue underpinning
the success of the UK in the e-commerce age is the existence of
widespread internet access for all."
Scottish National Party
In Scotland, the SNP also champions the cause of e-commerce
within its manifesto. The party wants to “up-skill Scotland for the
global economy” and build a modern telecommunications
infrastructure. The party also believes that a lack of broadband
technology is holding back business in Scotland. The manifesto
states:
"The main thrust of the SNP's ideas is that
Scotland's infrastructure must be improved for the country to be
able to compete. So we want more people to have access to the kind
of broadband technology which increases the speed at which
information is downloaded from the net."
