Written question asked by Lord Maude of Horsham (Conservative) on Monday, 27 April 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 29 April 2009. It was answered by Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour) on Tuesday, 2 June 2009 on behalf of the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

Government Departments: Email

Question: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster whether Government departments plan to make use of digital signatures when emailing members of the public.

Answer: Government Departments use a number of different means of securing communications between themselves and members of the public. The appropriate method is adopted to suit the particular business needs of individual Government Departments. Such security and authentication regimes include measures such as traditional cryptography, Transport Layer Security and X.509 server certificates as well as digital signatures.Mandatory requirement 38 of the Security Policy Framework states that:""all ICT systems must have suitable identification and authentication controls to manage the risk of unauthorised access, enable auditing and the correct management of user accounts.""This may include the use of digital signatures.

Secondary information