Digital Economy Bill [HL]

My Lords, this is a sad outcome to a Bill that started with promise. At the outset of the passage of the Bill through this House, almost all noble Lords accepted that we needed provisions that would avoid the scenario so graphically set out in the recent EU study that forecast the loss of 250,000 jobs by 2015 if current copyright piracy trends continue. There is no doubt that many parts of the Bill were greatly improved in the two and a half months that the Bill spent in this House, particularly in expressly stating that subscribers are presumed innocent until proof is provided otherwise. Subsequent to the Bill’s passage here, however, the process has been totally unsatisfactory. Second Reading could easily have been held three weeks earlier. The Bill left this House on 15 March and Second Reading could have taken place well before 6 April, when it actually took place in the Commons. Some Committee days on crucial areas such as file-sharing, website blocking and orphan works could have been allocated. Instead of that, we have had the unedifying prospect of a wash-up stitch-up between the Conservative and Labour Benches on many elements of the Bill. Allied to the lack of time was the Government’s unwillingness in some cases to consider amendments or to give assurances that would have delivered a sensible, consensus solution. It is no wonder that so many internet users, Back-Bench MPs and now the Front Bench of my party are firmly of the view that the Bill has not received adequate debate and should not proceed further. The stitch-up is clearly illustrated by the deletion of Clause 1, which would have given Ofcom valuable new powers. It is also illustrated in particular by the deletion of Clause 29, which would have enabled rollout of the IFNCs. As to the latter, the Government appear not even to have the courage of their own convictions. The clause would have enabled Ofcom to establish independently funded news consortia to provide innovative new methods of providing local and regional news on the Channel 3 network. On these Benches, we worked hard to strengthen this clause so that consortia could be appointed only if they were able to provide high-quality news. The omission of IFNCs from the Bill is even more disappointing because the clause did not require them to be set up; it made it only a possibility in the future, dependent on successful pilots and a suitable source of funding. Deleting the clause means that we lose this possibility and gain nothing in return. ITV has made it clear that it does not think that it can afford to continue with the provision of local news, which leaves the BBC as the monopoly provider. A constant refrain from all sections of this House, including the Conservative Front Bench, is that that is not a good thing. We find it hard to understand why the Conservative Front Bench has insisted on scuppering IFNCs in this way. The fact is that, as planned, the trials could have taken place in the Borders, Wales and the north of England without legislation. That would have received majority support here and in another place. However, the Government have said that they are no longer going to continue with letting those contracts for the pilots. That is a major missed opportunity. The Government have abjectly bowed to the Conservative Front Bench. We support the deletion of Clause 43 at this stage. Throughout the Bill’s passage through the House, we championed the cause of commercial photographers threatened by the orphan works provisions and we secured some improvements. In a proper Commons process, further amendments could have been made exempting contemporary photography, and ministerial assurances could have been given to ensure that only where moral rights applied across the board and there was proper attribution would photography be reinserted. In this way, the cultural sector could have been catered for by the process. However, because of the truncated time in the other place, that could not be done, so the only solution has been to delete Clause 43. We will not be voting on these Commons amendments, but I hope that we have made the views of these Benches clear and that never again will such a complicated Bill be dealt with in this way at the fag end of a Parliament.