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Queen’s Speech

My Lords, like many others I welcome the inclusion in the gracious Speech of the Government’s Digital Economy Bill, to be introduced in this House next week. Compared with the scope and scale of the Digital Britain White Paper which preceded it, it is perhaps relatively modest in its aspirations but it contains a number of significant provisions. Some have already been mentioned by other noble Lords but not, I think, one in particular—the provision in Clause 40 for the classification of video games. It draws on Professor Tanya Byron’s very important work on safer children in a digital world. I am very pleased to see that clause included in the Bill. I hope it will encounter no difficulties as the Bill progresses. In particular, I congratulate the Government on beginning the difficult and complex business of tackling the growing problem of online copyright infringement, which has been mentioned by several noble Lords. There is little doubt that this is causing significant damage to the creative economy and some effort to bring it under control is essential. The proposed new obligations on internet service providers are clearly central to successful implementation. However, probably like some others, I have a residual worry about how the issues of privacy and data protection will be addressed and what the mechanisms will be for ensuring that the new legislation is fairly and proportionately applied. I hope the Minister can make some observations on that when he replies. The two matters that I want to raise both relate to the proposed new obligations to be placed on Ofcom by Clause 1. These have already been touched on with great eloquence by my noble friend Lord Puttnam, who I am sorry to see is not in his place but who I know had an urgent appointment elsewhere. These two obligations, as he said, are to promote appropriate levels of investment in public-service media content, and to promote appropriate levels of investment in electronic communications networks. I am, I learnt today, once again a member of your Lordships’ Select Committee on Communications, which will imminently produce its report on UK-originated content in film and television. I must not—indeed, I cannot—pre-empt what the report might recommend, but the committee has received a vast amount of evidence pointing to the pressures on providers of UK public-service content. The Bill focuses on news provision but other types of programming, notably drama and material produced for children, are also acutely vulnerable. The UK has an exceptionally good story to tell about the creation of high-quality content in both these areas. I have spoken before about the extraordinary archive of excellent television drama, generated both by the BBC and the commercial television companies that has been built up over the past 50 years. However, I have also wondered whether my children and grandchildren will have as much to look back on when the next 50 years have passed. The cultural impact of television drama is enormous, whether it is viewed on a television screen or online. Protecting the output of original UK drama for television, including that made for children, should be high on Ofcom’s list of priorities as it takes on its new obligations. I also very much agreed with what my noble friend Lord Puttnam said about the future of Channel 4 as a public service broadcaster, and how important it is that that be safeguarded, and I am pleased to see attention devoted to this in the Bill. I wonder how many of your Lordships were, like me, up late last night watching the first episode of a new Channel 4 drama, "Cast Offs", in which virtually all the main actors were disabled. It was brilliant, funny, touching and completely unsentimental. I venture to suggest that it is something that only Channel 4 would have made. Channel 4 is a crucial player in the provision of truly innovative public service content, and makes a major contribution to the UK film industry, but in a tough environment its way forward is still not clear. I hope that Ofcom and the Government will do everything in their power to promote an outcome that will ensure a healthy, diverse public service landscape for the next generation of citizens and consumers. As regards Ofcom’s new obligation, ""to promote appropriate levels of investment in electronic communications"," "appropriate" can be a slippery word, leaving much to the judgment of the regulator, with the possibility of consequences not intended by Parliament. We have one example already before us in the current plight of the UK’s Programme-Making and Special Events sector, PMSE. This sector is largely defined by the technologies it uses and the activities that rely on them. Those technologies are wireless microphones, commonly known as radio mikes. The activities for which they are essential include musical theatre, news gathering, live music, film-making, TV production, sports events, concerts, community events at all scales and, indeed, party conferences. Justified, in its own view, by duties enshrined in the Communications Act 2003, Ofcom has decided to clear and sell the 15 channels relied on by the PMSE sector, with auction revenues going to the Government. As a consequence, the vast majority of the industry’s stock of radio mikes will become unusable. If the activities and events I mentioned are to continue even at current levels, all affected equipment will need to be replaced in one go, and at enormous cost to those who own and supply it, many of whom will not have the resources to make the necessary new investment. Nor can the sector plan ahead, as it has not been told which alternative channels it will be offered. All productions that depend on the availability of this equipment will therefore be under threat. I understand that the Government are committed to offering limited compensation to those who are being cleared from one of the 15 bands due to be sold. This leaves those to be evicted from the other 14 entitled to nothing. This cannot be right. The PMSE sector is running an excellent campaign on this issue, Save Our Sound, and I am grateful to it for briefing me. It aims to persuade the Government that none of those whose equipment will be rendered redundant should suffer financially as a consequence. I sympathise with this aim and ask my noble friend whether he can assure me that the Government will act promptly to mitigate the damaging consequences of Ofcom’s interpretation of its current duties under the Communications Act by providing compensation to all those affected, not just to some. This is not a small matter. If it is not resolved, we shall all notice the difference whether we are theatre or concert-goers, sports fans or involved in events in our local communities, even in our churches. Perhaps the Government might learn from this problem and, looking ahead, beware of giving regulators broad powers couched in vague language. I am a slightly reluctant citizen of Digital Britain; on good days I delight in its diversity and on bad days I long for the information superhighway to be dug up. I am a realist, however; I know that I and everyone else must engage with what a digital future has to offer and I commend the Government for taking steps to help our economy to make the best of it.