Public Bodies Bill [HL]

My Lords, in moving Amendment 39 I wish to speak also to Amendment 54. Essentially, my question to the Minister is the same as it was in the previous debate: namely, why is Ofcom still included? When we started out on this Bill, almost all the economic regulators were in one schedule or another—Ofgem, Ofwat, the Office of Rail Regulation and, I think, the CAA were all in there. However, only Ofcom remains. When my noble friend Lord Hunt pressed the Government on this earlier, there were references to cost saving and other things, but why does Ofcom appear in Schedules 4 and 5? Instead of a rational approach to the role of economic regulators, we have had departmentally based assessments of their roles, most of which have not yet reached a final decision. Ofgem and Ofwat are being reviewed by their departments but we are not looking in general at the role of economic regulators. We know that some changes are coming along the line to the scope of Ofcom because the Postal Services Bill, which is passing through this House, extends Ofcom’s reach by transferring the work of Postcomm into Ofcom. I support that move but a transfer mechanism or a modification does not need to be included in this Bill because a separate piece of primary legislation exists to achieve that. Expenditure on Ofcom has already been reduced by the department and the reference in the previous stage to a saving of some £400,000 could be achieved administratively. It is also true that advisory committees to Ofcom can be changed without primary or secondary legislation. Indeed, it seems to me that Ofcom, presumably with the connivance of its parent department, has already removed by stealth the Communications Consumer Panel from effective operation without it being entirely clear where those functions for the protection of consumers in the communications business now lie. Therefore, it is unclear why the Government need additional powers to make savings and streamline Ofcom’s operation. As regards Ofcom’s inclusion in Schedule 5, we know about the transfer into Ofcom of the Postcomm responsibilities but there is a suspicion that there may be some transfer out of it. Ofcom has responsibility for regulating a whole range of communications industries, many of which are deeply sensitive. I referred just now to its sponsor department but it is sometimes unclear to us who is the sponsor department for Ofcom because, on the media side at least, a significant proportion of Ofcom’s activities now appear to be the responsibility of DCMS rather than BIS. I do not regard that as a particularly healthy move. However, either way, it raises a suspicion that some of its media responsibilities, such as media ownership, broadcasting content and the whole structure of regional broadcasting, may be in line for being curtailed or moved back to the department. It would be alarming if a transfer out involved any of those items. There are also other responsibilities. Just to show that I am not being partisan, I had a substantial and ongoing row with the previous Government about their provisions in the Digital Economy Bill. Those provisions have been handed over to Ofcom to implement, which is finding some difficult in doing that. There may be some irritation in government about that. Therefore, a lot of Ofcom’s responsibilities could be transferred out. I should like an assurance that Ofcom’s continued inclusion in Schedule 5 in particular does not mean a reduction in its scope, particularly as regards those responsibilities. Ofcom has, in general, been a pretty good economic regulator in the consumer’s interest, as compared with some other bodies. However, it was and is always up against some powerful telecoms, broadcasting and media companies and their lawyers in almost every move that it makes. I therefore hope that the Government are not envisaging that we should reduce Ofcom’s responsibilities and are not using its inclusion in Schedule 5 to facilitate that reduction without primary legislation. I beg to move.