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Digital Economy Bill [HL]

My Lords, I declare an interest as both a member of the board of the Environment Agency and a member of the Joint Committee chaired by the noble Lord, Lord Puttnam, who is no longer in his place, that carried out the pre-legislative scrutiny of the Climate Change Bill. It was clearly a fault of those who were scrutinising the Climate Change Bill that this issue was not included. Communications are absolutely vital not only in responding to the acute situation of an emergency caused by changes in weather conditions but in future-proofing the systems in terms of expected changes in temperature, soil composition as a result and so on. I hope that, even if the Minister does not completely accept the amendment moved by the noble Baroness—I nearly said "noble friend", as she was once—the Government will accept that Ofcom should take on an equivalent function to the ones that Ofwat and Ofgem have in planning for resilience in the face of climate change. Whether or not that is done in this precise form, an indication from the Government tonight would be helpful.