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Digital Economy Bill [HL]

My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lord Lucas for his amendments, not only for raising the point about information and getting that into the right hands, as the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, mentioned, but for raising the question of the sort of appeals system that would be established under the provisions. There is so little information available about the sort of process that is envisaged that it is hard to know where to start. I agree, of course, with my noble friend. The appeal should cover the whole scope of the initial obligations code. Much as a notification letter might be considered only as a warning, it is nevertheless the first of three steps towards further action that would potentially end up in court. A subscriber should not be taken down that path if there is no good reason for that to happen. There can be no justification for any cost falling on a subscriber if he has a successful appeal. If someone has done nothing wrong, yet still receives a notification letter, it is not his fault; it is the fault of the rights holder or the internet service providers, which have failed to correctly identify the infringement. I very much hope that the code will be sufficient to stop such errors occurring, but provision should certainly be made just in case. Mistakes arise—they happen—and it would be quite wrong for legislation such as we are debating this evening not to provide for a remedy in the event of innocent people being accused of misdoings.