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Digital Economy Bill [HL]

My Lords, we on these Benches entirely agree with my noble friend’s Amendment 19. It is worth noting that the reports that Ofcom currently produces are published for all to see. For instance, Section 264(10), in relation to Ofcom’s reports on the fulfilment of the public service remit, explicitly states: ""Every report prepared by OFCOM under this section must be published by them"." That is significantly different from the reports under Clause 2 of the Bill, which states that they must be sent to the Secretary of State. There is crucially no mention of publication. If these reports are to be useful contributions to the public policy debate on such an important issue, they should be made public as soon as possible. The amendment provides the Secretary of State with the ability to make redactions if these are necessary, so fears of commercial confidentiality should be addressed. It is important, if these reports are to retain the confidence of both the industry and consumers, for everyone to be able to see them. We certainly want to hear some assurances from the Minister that this will indeed be the case even if he does not accept this particular drafting. It would also be helpful if the Committee could be told whether these reports will be subject to release under the Freedom of Information Act. If so, it would seem to make more sense simply to publish them with as much detail as possible. Ofcom and the Government are used to producing reports that are based on commercially sensitive information and we see no reason why these reports should not be dealt with in the same manner. We also support Amendment 28. As I have previously stated, we on these Benches believe that for these reports to be of most value, they need to be published for all to see. Parliamentary scrutiny of these reports would greatly enhance their worth.