Digital Economy Bill [HL]

My Lords, I was pondering the response of the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones. I did not know whether to describe it as a Damascene conversion or a volte-face. Nor did I know the cause of the change, although I suspect that it may have had something to do with the Liberal Democrat conference not that long ago. We responded to the demands of this Chamber that we should take away the suggestion about site blocking. We pointed out at the time that it was a very complicated area that would not be resolved by the previous suggested amendment. We have come back with our own amendment, which was endorsed by the Commons and which takes into account some of the concerns expressed, including, as the noble Lord, Lord Clement Jones, accepted, the super-affirmative procedure to provide additional scrutiny. I remind noble Lords that we were willing to incorporate that also into the ill-fated Clause 17 as another way of dealing with future concerns. The noble Earl, Lord Erroll, raised the point about the definition of ISPs. We would not demur from the conclusions of his research. We agree that it would be an issue for any regulation, which is why consultation is required. I seek also to reassure the noble Earl that an injunction could not be dealt with by a magistrates’ court: it would have to be a higher court. With this amendment we have endeavoured to take into account the complexity of what we are trying to do. We are keen to ensure that we safeguard freedom of expression and do not in any way bring into being something that would impact adversely on the internet or on internet service providers. Motion agreed. Motion on Amendments 3 and 4 Moved by