In today's Digital Economy Bill the Government has set out the legislative measures it is taking to deliver its vision of a Digital Britain, ensuring the UK remains at the forefront of the digital revolution, increasing digital participation and fostering innovation. The inclusion in the Digital Economy Bill of reserve powers to regulate the UK domain name industry and provide a guarantee that the public interest will underpin the operation of the UK domain name space was clearly laid out in the Digital Britain Review and Implementation plans. 

Nominet has had constructive dialogue with the Department for Business (BIS) for many years including as part of our Policy Advisory Body.  It is very clear that it considers Nominet's role as critical to the UK national infrastructure.

Last year, BIS said that if self-regulation within the domain name industry was to continue, we needed to update our constitution in order to more closely reflect the current needs of all Internet stakeholders.  They urged us to reaffirm our commitment to our wider public purpose – being a guardian of the UK Internet for today’s users and future generations.

BIS has been clear about their concerns and their expectations, whilst acknowledging the excellent work that we have undertaken.  In response to these concerns, we commissioned an Independent governance review conducted by Professor Bob Garratt which reported back in April.  Since then, we have consulted with our membership on how we can work together to ensure the domain name industry in the UK continues to flourish and remains an example of effective self-regulation.  We are about to enter a further consultation on a set of recommendations that we believe will help us deliver the changes the Government want to see and will then put them to a member vote at an EGM in early 2010. 

The Government has been clear that if our members implement in full the changes proposed, then they are confident that Nominet will remain a beacon of self-regulation, protecting the wider public interest, without the need for Government intervention.
 
We believe that the reserve powers set out in the Digital Economy Bill will not be needed and that together with our membership Nominet will be able to introduce the constitutional reforms needed to allow .uk to continue to be operated responsibly and in the public interest. 

We remain a strong proponent of industry self-regulation as it promotes innovation and allows us to respond quickly to market conditions, yet we recognise the need to retain the Government’s trust and confidence in our industry.  We will work with our members to ensure this remains the case. We remain committed to an industry-led model for the operation and management of this important national resource and recognise the responsibility that this implies.  We believe that we have shown that we take the responsibility of holding .uk in trust for the nation very seriously.