The U.K. government should support teleworking and help workers adjust to the challenges of working out of their homes, said Patricia Hewitt, the Minister of State for E-Commerce at the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), in a speech on Wednesday.

Hewitt, also referred to as the U.K.'s "E-Minister," told the audience at the Telework 2000 conference here that her office will be working "towards a public/private partnership to extend broadband access across the U.K.," though she did not outline any specific initiatives.

Regarding current taxes and regulations relating to teleworking, Hewitt promised that "we will look into fair treatment for people working at home."

According to Hewitt, allowing employees to work from their homes through teleworking will enable the U.K. labor force to grow faster, and the government must help expand teleworking, in part, by leading through example. "DTI just put in place our own network access system," Hewitt said, though she admitted that the department's IT manager, or "techie chap" as she referred to him, was experiencing the normal hassles of working all of the bugs out of the new system.

Hewitt praised the U.K. for its progress in making the transition from an industrial to a knowledge economy. Due to the U.K.'s competitive markets and "some very tough regulation, we now have the cheapest off-peak Internet access costs in the world," Hewitt said.

However, there was still work to be done in bringing down costs during peak Internet access times, Hewitt said, and in making broadband available across the U.K.

Despite the repeated delays experienced by the former U.K. national monopoly British Telecommunications PLC (BT) in offering its ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber line) service, Hewitt assured the audience that "ASDL is being rolled out very fast in the U.K."

BT had initially announced in April that it would begin offering broadband Internet services aimed at home and small business users in July but now plans to launch a trial of its own content-driven ADSL service, BTopenworld, in October, with the full roll-out for business and home users beginning in November. [See "Freeserve to Beat BT to ADSL Punch," Aug. 22].

DTI will publish on Wednesday its guide "Working Anywhere," Hewitt announced.

The Department of Trade and Industry can be found on the Web at http://www.dti.gov.uk/.