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Digital Economy Bill [HL]

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, has made some very useful points. I must confess that the reason why we tabled amendments to the noble Lord’s amendment—which I am sure is fully formed and perfect—is lost in the mists of time. Nevertheless, a more general statement would be appropriate in the Bill, rather than something this specific about the actual use of parts of the spectrum; I suspect that was our motive in tabling these two amendments. They are all about the critical infrastructure. In debating the Bill, we need to consider the public benefit of reserving a small amount of radio spectrum for use by the critical infrastructure, which is crucial to our well-being, compared to the incremental benefit of using this spectrum to provide more entertainment services and marginally quicker broadband communications. Thirteen years ago, during the passage of the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1998, which introduced the concept of spectrum trading to the UK, the Government gave the assurance that, "““it is not our intention that the introduction of spectrum pricing should affect the access of utilities to the radio spectrum that they require””.—[Official Report, 8/7/97; col. 559.]" Similar commitments have been made on subsequent occasions, and these should be honoured in the Bill to safeguard the operation of gas and electricity networks specifically. As we move to a more interconnected society based around communications technology, the interdependence of the underlying electricity networks and communications must not be overlooked. It is not in the consumer’s or citizen’s interest for the integrity of the electricity supply network to be compromised by the lack of resilient communications infrastructure. I have received a considerable number of briefings, all in language that I am sure the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, will understand, but I confess that I do not—particularly in terms of the emergency infrastructure. I hope the Government have taken all these matters into account, and that they can reply to say that they have done so. I beg to move.