Ecommerce minister given additional responsibilities

The UK's ecommerce minister Stephen Timms has been give the additional responsibilities of energy and postal services, prompting a mixed reaction from business and IT groups.

Timms has been ecommerce minister since May last year, and is taking on the extra duties following the retirement of former energy minister Brian Wilson last week.

IT and business organisations have given a mixed reaction to the news, some worrying that the adoption of ecommerce in the UK could suffer.

'Stephen Timms has made good progress with raising the profile of ecommerce in the UK,' said Frits Janssen, chief executive of the BuyIT Best Practice Group. 'Adding these new responsibilities of energy and postal services could lead to a dilution of ministerial focus on the vital programme of making the UK the dominant ecommerce nation.'

The country?s forward movement in the adoption of IT has probably been at least partially speeded up by his [Timm's] involvement and knowledge,' said David Roberts, chief executive of blue chip user group The Corporate IT Forum (Tif). 'As I understand it, the adoption of IT to improve productivity is one of the drums the government has been drumming for ages. I would advocate that not only is there a single individual [working on ecommerce] but they gain greater authority or a stronger remit to make us all move forward,' Roberts said. However, Jeremy Beale, head of ebusiness at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) believes the new areas of responsibility fit well with Timms' ecommerce expertise. 'This is nothing to be afraid of,' he said. 'It probably means ecommerce will have more impact because things are being brought together.' Nick Kalisperas, senior programme manager at supplier trade body Intellect is hoping that Timms has been in the job long enough that he understands industry needs and will be able to strike a happy balance between his roles. 'Obviously picking up new responsibilities will have an impact on the amount of time he can dedicate to ecommerce,? Kalisperas said. 'I think at the moment it's a case of wait and see.' But the government has said ecommerce will remain as much of a priority as it has in the past. 'We are certainly not going to pay any less attention to ecommerce. It's a very important area and we are not going to let it slip because the minister has a new area,' a Department of Trade and Industry spokeswoman said. 'If the accusation is that ecommerce isn't going to be as much as a priority as before, that's not the case,' she said.