VNUnet 29/5/2001: "Future e-envoy 'banned' from conference"

[Caspar Bowden]

http://www.vnunet.com/News/1122062
Future e-envoy 'banned' from conference
By Lisa Kelly [29 May 2001

Nigel Hickson, head of ebusiness at the Confederation of British Industry
(CBI), who is soon to be e-envoy for Bermuda, claims that he has been banned
from speaking at a conference to debate levels of workplace privacy.
The Privacy at Work conference, to be hosted by the Information Commission
on 28 June, will thrash out a code of conduct guiding employers on the
extent to which they are entitled to monitor workers' emails.

Due to be published by the end of the year, the controversial code is
designed to weave a course between employers' rights under the Regulation of
Investigatory Powers Act and employees' rights under data protection
legislation.

A heated debate is expected between employees' representatives, such as the
Trades Union Congress, and employers' representatives such as the CBI.

Hickson, who takes his position as ecommerce adviser to the sun-drenched
Bermuda protectorate in July for a two-year stint, said: "They rejected me
to speak. I volunteered on behalf of the CBI and they turned me down either
because I'm incompetent or my views are slightly strident."

But Iain Bourne, strategic policy manager at the Information Commission,
said: "There is no rejection. He was not one of the people invited to speak
at the conference."

Hickson is currently serving out his two-year unpaid leave at the CBI on
loan from the Department of Trade and Industry before he leaves for Bermuda.

Although he has been taken on to help with the roll out of ebusiness in
Bermuda, he is in a prime position to push UK interests in the country.

Speaking to vnunet.com, Hickson said: "I will promote some good things in
the UK, like Public Key Infrastructure, security work and work on telecoms."

"Bermuda is a small place with a population of only 65,000, but you don't
need a great physical presence for ebusiness," he added.