By Jean Eaglesham, Legal Correspondent Published: August 18 2000 19:09GMT | Last Updated: August 18 2000 20:28GMT The UK government has bowed to industry pressure to change its draft rules on companies' monitoring of e-mails and phone calls being introduced under the controversial Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, governing surveillance by the police. It is also "urgently discussing" ways of extending the four week consultation period on the rules beyond next Friday. The change now agreed will allow companies to read messages sent to employees who are on holiday or off work ill. The government had hoped to rush through the draft rules in time for the October 2 implementation of the Human Rights Act. The existing law on police phone tapping failed a challenge at the European Court of Human Rights and the Home Office is adamant that the RIP Act should be in force on October 2. But the draft rules on business monitoring have attracted criticism from industry and employee representatives. The Department of Trade and Industry said last night it had identified some options for extending the "unusually brief" August-only consultation period, which it was "urgently discussing" with the Home Office. The DTI has also agreed to meet one of the principal industry criticisms. The rules, as they stand, would make it illegal for businesses to check up on employee e-mails and phone calls without the consent of both the sender and receiver. There are only a few, narrowly defined, exceptions to this "no consent" rule. This would make it impossible for companies to read e-mails received by people who are away from the workplace, since there would be no way of checking whether the sender's consent was required or had been given. The DTI said the regulations would be changed to "make it clear businesses are able to monitor communications such as colleagues' e-mail accounts in order to check whether these are business messages that need to be dealt with in their absence". Employees would have to be informed such monitoring might occur. The Confederation of British Industry, the main employers' organisation, on Friday night welcomed the news of the climbdown. But it still wanted to discuss with the DTI other issues arising from the rules. Industry groups have commissioned lawyers to look at whether the legal basis of the rules is flawed. The government claims European legislation - the Telecommunications Data Protection Directive - requires it to legislate on companies' surveillance. However, lawyers have questioned whether that directive extends to private, as well as public, networks. Lawyers also warn the regulations could trigger human rights challenges by employers and employees.
