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Digital Economy Bill [HL]

My Lords, I have already said that these are very important amendments. The noble Lord, Lord Whitty, put it extremely effectively and correctly. All I can add is that there are various things on this agenda. First, there is efficiency—we are trying to deliver government services electronically. We read that £1.3 billion is about to be allocated to it and that certain government services will be only available online. You cannot do that if you suddenly find a significant percentage of the population cannot access them. People say that there is 95 per cent coverage, for example. The remaining 5 per cent still makes up a significant actual number of people. You cannot deal with this in percentage terms. This will save money in the administration, which is hugely important. Secondly, there is resilience. In some unexpected circumstances such as when the snow falls, as has just happened, you can still get access to key people who may be needed. You do not always need their physical presence, you need their brain power. Thirdly, there is the green agenda and the environment. You reduce pollution by less travel because you can communicate properly and efficiently. Again you have to do it universally. The people who have to travel most are those who live furthest away from a city centre. You can use public transport in a city—you cannot if you live more than a couple of miles away from the station. Fourthly, there is education and the people we rely on for the future. Some children live in non-urban areas and a lot of homework now involves trying to get access over the internet. You also have the ongoing lifelong learning, a lot of which is delivered over the internet. This all comes down to money. Where savings are made, the people who see the benefits from it are not the people who put the money into developing the infrastructure. The people who are developing the infrastructure get no commercial benefit from doing it. The people who are going to benefit from it do not want to put money into it because their budgets are not big enough and they are busily cutting costs—everyone is going to have a very strong haircut, we hear. It is complicated. That is why these amendments are so important. There has to be someone in the middle to take money from A and give it to B. Someone has to be brave at central government level.