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Digital Economy Bill [HL]

My Lords, we have heard that the Committee is not particularly happy with this rather shadowy, possible body which seems to be lurking in the wings. We had rather a similar situation under Clause 7, which contained the right, ""to establish one or more bodies corporate"." Just how many of these shadowy bodies are we going to be threatened with? Is this the revival of something which we thought had had a stake driven through its heart: the digital rights agency? Who knows? It would be useful to have more clarity from the Minister on just what is proposed. Even more concern is felt about the rather weasel wording of subsection (4)(b) of proposed new Section 124E of the Communications Act 2003, which uses the expression "sufficiently independent". If the Minister was frank and said that Ofcom will in all probable circumstances be responsible for the administration and enforcement of the code, we would be rather more satisfied, but if there is a possibility of this body being created, "sufficiently" seems to be rather important. Who decides what is "sufficiently independent"? Do we not need a rather more objective test? Is it independent or not? For what will it be "sufficiently" independent? Do we have to have to rely on the old test of the length of the Minister’s thumb to decide whether independence is sufficient? He may have a very short thumb, but his successor may have a long thumb, in which case independence will be defined in a different way. "Sufficiently" is a weasel word and it should not be in the Bill. I beg to move.