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Digital Economy Bill [HL]

My Lords, having had the privilege of sitting on these pre-legislative committees to which the noble Lord, Lord Puttnam, referred, I agree absolutely with him. I also agree with the substance of the amendment, as noble Lords would expect, as I have added my name to it. The noble Lord, Lord Whitty, is right that it is a great shame that the Government have not laid out a more positive objective before moving on to more punitive aspects. Without having that objective clearly in the Bill, I am worried that some of the resources that should be going into educating the public will be lacking. The Minister will be well aware that the Government’s rollout of their programme that now appears on the edge of our hotmail and other places —the zip it, block it, flag it—is exactly the sort of educational programme that should have preceded measures like this by a good year or 18 months. Only in that way can we start to get the message through to the generation that the noble Lord, Lord Whitty, talked about. The Government have got it the wrong way round. They should have run the educational campaign, measured whether it had had sufficient impact, except against serial offenders who do it for commercial gain, and then introduced the sort of measures aimed exactly at them rather than the occasional downloader or the institutions that we shall no doubt be discussing later. It is a pity that the Government did not commence their educational campaign well before bringing in these measures. I can understand why they have introduced this Bill now; they want to hurry it through before the election, which is understandable, but the necessity for the educational campaign has been known for a long time. It is a pity that they have not embarked on it. What resources will the Government be allocating now for an educational campaign based on what the public need to know about what is and what is not legal? I am glad that the noble Lord, Lord Whitty, included the results of his survey because it highlights the need for the Government to have a quick and comprehensive campaign on the issue.