Government fails on broadband and e-crime

The UK government must work with the private sector to tackle cyber crime and the slow broadband roll out, Chancellor Gordon Brown has been told.

In its submission to the Chancellor's pre-budget report, IT manager user group the Institute for the Management of Information Systems (Imis) said that the government should "forcefully encourage" the pooling of public sector communications budgets with private sector players such as retailers to increase demand for broadband.

"The aim is to secure better value for currently budgeted spend by achieving both critical mass and 'bankable' contracts which cut supplier cost of capital," said the submission.

It calls for the rapid implementation of the Broadband Stakeholder Group's recommendations, with quarterly reports on progress or obstacles.

The bandwidth needs of government educational projects should be aggregated to provide 2Mbps always-on connections by the end of 2002. Imis wants these aggressively upgraded to 20Mbps by 2005 and 100Mbps by the end of 2010.

Equipment and communications costs incurred by those studying from home should be made tax-deductible with funding for non-taxpayers on social inclusion programmes, said Imis. It argues that all this can be done without finding new money.

The Treasury should also help law enforcement agencies to take advantage of the superior skills of the banking sector in tackling cyber crime.

"The failure of governments to give priority to fraud or e-crime has meant that those most at risk have had to learn how to protect themselves. Banks and major multinationals now routinely deploy resources and expertise which are both larger and more up-to-date than those available to most governments," said the submission.

"Rather than place obstacles in the way of their ability to protect themselves while pouring public money down black holes, the time has come for the government to seek to harness the best talent available in a co-operative fight against common enemies," it added.

The Institute pointed out that many top operators have left law enforcement agencies to join the private sector.

"Many are seriously concerned that the public sector no longer has the skills to protect its own networks, let alone to form policies relevant to the evolving threats. There is a need to open constructive dialogue and to harness the skills of the private sector to the common good," said Imis.

The pre-budget announcement is a progress report on what the government has achieved and what policy reforms it will consult on in the run up to the next budget. The Chancellor will make the report on 27 November.