Two measures designed to facilitate the safe development of E-commerce within the UK would appear to be on track for completion of their parliamentary stages later this year. Originally the Government intended that the Electronic Communications Bill would deal with not only the legal recognition of electronic signatures and statutory schemes for cryptography service providers but also with the policing of encrypted communication. Subsequently it was decided to introduce the investigatory provisions in a new Bill -the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Bill (RIP) -which repeals the Interception of Communications Act 1985 and was, in any case, necessary so as to ensure that interception of communications does not fall foul of the UK Human Rights Act bringing the European Convention of Human Rights into English law.The RIP Bill will establish a new statutory power permitting law enforcement, security and intelligence agencies to serve written notices requiring access to encrypted material and to have that material provided in an intelligible form. The new offences include failure to comply with the terms of a written notice and, in certain circumstances,'tipping off' another person that a notice has been served or giving details of its content. The Government maintains that oversight procedures will protect the security and privacy of material obtained, but it has yet to convince businesses and their representative organizations that commercially sensitive data will not be leaked. The RIP measure received its Second Reading on 25 May and continues its progress at this time. The Electronic Communications Bill has now completed its Parliamentary stages and received the Royal Assent at the end of May.The Act implements a crucial element of the EU Electronic Signatures Directive concerning the legal admissibility of electronic signatures and is regarded as an important contribution to creating a single market in secure electronic commerce. T Th he e R RI IP P B Bi il ll l c ca an n b be e f fo ou un nd d a at t: : < >. . T Th he e E El le ec ct tr ro on ni ic c C Co om mm mu un ni ic ca at ti io on ns s A Ac ct t 2 20 00 00 0 c ca an n b be e f fo ou un nd d a at t: : < >. .