Digital Britain

My Lords, just to change the tone slightly, I shall start by saying that while not agreeing wholly with the content of this paper, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Carter, on its production and the fact that it was produced on time. He was clearly the right person for the job. Indeed, he was probably the only person, given his background. We will all miss him when he steps down as a Minister. I want to make one point that is of a slightly negative nature. I was extremely disappointed, not to say incensed, by the late arrival of the Statement, which arrived one hour and 10 minutes before the expected time of delivery and the paper itself, which arrived 35 minutes before the expected time of delivery of the Statement in the House, and that was only because of a raid on the Government Chief Whip’s office. That does not serve the Minister well; it does not reflect well on either the DCMS or the department, whose name escapes me temporarily—I think DBIS is the shortened version. It demonstrates contempt for the proceedings of this House, and it does not serve a Minister of the noble Lord’s calibre at all well. As we know, the two departments have had a little over eight months to put this Digital Britain report together. On these Benches we got half an hour to read it and to write our response. That is not acceptable and I hope that if the Leader of the House reads this, she will take due note and change the practices of the House so that we have the ability to respond properly. I noted with great interest what the noble Lord, Lord Luke, had to say about the press. Indeed, I was extremely interested in the article of the noble Lord, Lord Carter, in the FT, which I thought gave nothing away. It was a perfectly proper article to write on the morning of the release of the report because it talked essentially about the justification for the paper on the basis of an industrial strategy. It seemed to me that that paper put the creative industries, in many ways quite rightly, on the same basis as the pharmaceutical industry, financial and professional services, and so on. The dimension that we really must not forget today is that it is not simply about industrial policy, but creative and cultural strategy, which is different in many ways. This paper reflects it. We are talking about the content, not simply the way in which that content is delivered. The important thing about the Digital Britain experience—both the interim report and this one—is that it recognises the crucial nature of our creative industries for the future economy of the UK. We have a huge amount of ground to make up. I was recently in Hong Kong and South Korea where universally they have super-fast, one gigabit per second broadband. That is a different dimension from anything that we have in this country, which will serve them extremely well in the future. Sadly, having invested some hope that this report would settle some of the issues, we find that this is but another interim report. Incidentally, I make it another 11 consultations which are due, not another 12. I fear that, sadly, the Minister will leave office with unfinished business. There are too many issues that remain unresolved, such as the possible Channel 4 worldwide merger or joint venture, or the inclusion of a return path on digital boxes. I had only a brief time to scan the report, but there was not enough in there about children’s television support, and perhaps tax relief or some form of future support for that. The whole issue of the governance of the BBC has not been addressed in the report. We on these Benches believe that an independent PSB regulator will be essential in the future. There are, however, some very welcome aspects. We now know that the PEGI is to classify video games—a pan-European solution that we have always favoured. A tax break for the games industry is being contemplated, which is very welcome as well. And we finally have a date for switchover to digital radio in 2015, which we on these Benches have asked for consistently. We also have shared concerns about the need to protect intellectual property; millions are being lost by creators, whether of music or film, and potentially, in the future, of books, through illegal downloading and file-sharing. Partnerships between ISPs and rights holders to create new commercial models are the way forward in many areas. Yesterday’s deal between Universal and Virgin is a good example. Statutory measures, however, are also needed, and we very much welcome the steps that are proposed; they are proportionate and avoid the heavy-handed "three strikes and you’re out" proposals by some countries, such as France. But what has happened to the digital rights agency that had its own paper published after the interim report? I do not see any mention of that in the Statement and I did not find any reference to it in the main body of the final report. Overall, the proposals for broadband are far reaching and welcome, but the proposed timing means that those in remote rural areas will be disappointed at having to wait until 2017 before the benefits of super-fast broadband are likely to reach them. Should not the emphasis now be on encouraging commercial pull-through so that even more needs to be done to drive forward initiatives such as smart metering, e-democracy and digital healthcare to stimulate demand and hence investment? Given the real fall in the costs of telecommunications, as the Minister mentioned, the proposed small levy on all copper fixed lines to pay to get near-universal super-fast broadband seems to us imaginative and acceptable. But, even though this is a small sum, it is in the nature of a regressive, fixed charge like a poll tax; I very much hope that he will consider exemptions, at least for pensioners. We also welcome the reaffirmation of the multi-annual licence fee settlement for the BBC. We welcome the plans to support regional and local news; we have no problem with the BBC’s involvement with this, anymore than with its helping the rollout of broadband. We are, however, deeply concerned about the fact that what is initially proposed is essentially a top-slicing of the licence fee. Top-slicing sets a precedent that, in our view, undermines the BBC’s independence. This form of subsidy may be fine in itself, but what guarantee can we have that a future Government will not take money from the licence fee to fund their pet projects in any area, especially when they are unhappy with what the BBC is doing? Surely the BBC should be involved at all stages by establishing a partnership fund within the BBC, as we explained on these Benches in our last debate on the BBC, and clear remit given to it to engage in such partnerships. We clearly have greater faith in these partnerships than the Government. Clearly, there is a great deal of work to be done and further decisions to be made. It is disappointing that we are still at the stage where we have not yet got final determination on so many areas. This is a work in progress but, limited as it is, we on these Benches welcome it.