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Digital Economy Bill [HL]

My Lords, I failed to mention one further element. The noble Lord, Lord Howard, is right about solicitors’ codes of conduct with regard to the Solicitors Regulatory Authority. It should be made clear to many of these individuals who have been bullied in this way that the SRA is available to them if they wish to make a complaint. It is difficult, though, even in those circumstances. I remind the Minister, for the purposes of his response, that the reason why my noble friend Lord Razzall originally put down an amendment that said one should go first of all according to the codes rather than to court was entirely to try to eliminate this kind of issue. Obviously one cannot exclude the court completely, but one of the questions that the Minister might consider, certainly in drawing up the codes, is whether some kind of presumption should be stated in the code that most copyright owners will proceed according to the CIR notification process rather than through this kind of court action process. That is not a formal amendment, but it is something that I think the Minister should put into the pot in terms of his considerations.