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Digital Economy Bill [HL]

My Lords, while I, like my noble friend Lord Gordon, do not entirely accept the characterisation of Ofcom by the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, by and large it has not made a bad fist of balancing out its obligations to citizens and consumers—and I declare, as I will probably have to do later as well, that I am chair of Consumer Focus. In one sense, Ofcom has been relatively good among regulators —and that is, let us just say, a relative term—in terms of taking care of the consumer interest. Yet, without any counterbalance, this clause changes that balance. It insists that it is the role of the regulator to promote infrastructure, for whatever purpose, so that the economic responsibility to the industry is emphasised but not the responsibility to the citizen and the consumer. Whether we do it in the general sense to which the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, referred or, following some of my later amendments, in a more explicit and specific sense in the terms to which the noble Lord, Lord Steel, referred, of something approaching a universal service obligation on the part of Ofcom, the balance in simply taking this clause will be wrong. At this stage, I am not explicitly supporting the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, should this be taken to a vote, but the Government need to look at whether, by adopting this clause, they are unbalancing what has hitherto been a balanced responsibility for Ofcom.