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Digital Economy Bill [HL]

My Lords, the amendment tabled by the noble Lords, Lord Howard of Rising and Lord De Mauley, would allow more than one approved code on the initial obligations to be in effect at any one time. This would not be beneficial to any of the parties. It is important for everyone to know to which code they are operating at any time, and having more than one could lead to confusion and unnecessary duplication of effort. If the noble Lords are thinking of the situation in which technical measures may have been required, it is already possible under new Section 1241(2) in Clause 12 to introduce a single new or amended code to cover both the initial obligations and the technical measures. The line which the noble Lords propose to delete refers to the initial obligations code. Having said that, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Howard, on going in a totally different direction that is not covered by my speaking note: the commercial arrangements between a rights holder and an ISP. I hope the Box will confirm that stakeholders will be involved in the creation of the code. I am getting an affirming nod, which is always comforting when I think that I am winging it.