A company set up to improve consumer trust in the Internet is refusing to join a Government-backed scheme to boost e- commerce, writes Maggie Hartford.

TrustUK, launched today, is an industry-backed body aiming to give people the confidence to buy on-line.

But Oxford company Clicksure, which runs its own e-commerce quality scheme, is refusing to join TrustUK.

TrustUK says most reputable companies are members of trade associations or subscriber bodies which already operate codes of practice, so no new scheme is needed for the Web.

Websites can carry its hallmark if they meet the codes of practice set by their own industries.

Clicksure chief executive Christopher Upton said: "There are no tests carried out on the statements made by the code owners and no monitoring or regulation of the members."

Another drawback was that the scheme was not global, nor independent.

"TrustUK is not fully independent from the schemes it will approve. No independent bodies are to be tasked with monitoring, regulation or dealing with infringements of TrustUK's hallmark.

He said: "Unlike Clicksure, TrustUK does not offer guidance to web merchants on how they can improve their sites and service.

"TrustUK is a complaint-driven scheme which will do very little to protect consumers from encountering problems or encourage quality on-line operations."

TrustUK members so far are the travel agents' body ABTA, the Direct Marketing Association and Which? Webtrader, a commercial arm of the Consumers' Association.