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Digital Economy Bill [HL]

My Lords, what is the role of a Minister when friends fall out in the Opposition? The noble Lord, Lord Fowler, has articulated an important case that emerged from his committee and which we have taken seriously. It is not a question of falling out among friends but of different perspectives in different parts of the Opposition. He will not be at all surprised or delighted that I am on his side on this rather than the official position put so ably by the noble Lord, Lord De Mauley. I congratulate him on the clarity with which he presented his reservations about the Government’s position. However, even if we descend to the point that my noble friend Lord Gordon suggested we should—namely, that the Government’s position is the least bad solution to a difficult problem—that is where the Government will rest. I accept the point that my noble friend Lord Puttnam made. There is nothing about the Government’s proposals on this that are hard and fast for the future of news provision in this country. They are a response to the ever-pressing, growing problem, clearly identified by the noble Lord, Lord Fowler, of the decrease in other forms of expression of news and the crisis affecting television, which affected regional newspapers earlier. I heard what the noble Lord, Lord De Mauley, said about resistance to public subsidy, but the Government are setting up pilots to test the market and see whether the position proves effective and viable. There is no commitment that this should be long term. If the hopes of my noble friend Lord Puttnam are fulfilled—and we can have hopes in this area, given the creative abilities of our people in the media—why should this not be seed corn that is so successful that public funding becomes unnecessary? The Bill is not the place to reach decisions on funding, but the House knows that the Government are moving judiciously in this area. This is not setting up a new brand of public subsidy of news, but creating opportunities for alternative news fora and creative forces to develop and present the only challenge to what would otherwise become a BBC monopoly, not even checked by the regional press, which did so in the past, but is regrettably not in a position to do so now. These are genuine shifts in the marketplace. We should be concerned to safeguard the plurality of news and the competitiveness of news provision, and that is what the Government are concerned to do. I know the ogre that can be created. It is that this will be subject to the Orwellian monstrosity of Ofcom control of news: a deep-laid government plot to ensure that there is a monopoly controller who will eye us all from the television set, which will be the only provision we will get. No; that particular ogre will not materialise. Editorial judgment and control will remain precisely where they should be—with the news providers, who will need support in the early stages. This is about securing the quality of delivery that audiences expect. They have high and proper standards when it comes to news provision. Every opinion poll that is ever carried out on television and news provision in this country emphasises that the public value the provision of news because of the standard and quality which all providers in this country have maintained thus far. This is clearly a sticking point for the Opposition. They have made it clear that they want this clause out of the Bill, but unless action is taken, exactly the position described by the noble Lord, Lord Fowler, and his committee—the deliberations of his committee were important in these areas—will pertain, and the plurality of local and regional news and the news-gathering enterprise that underpins it will erode very quickly. The problem is that the erosion is quick at the present time and it is not obvious that the pace will not accelerate. The clause is of great importance. I know that I will not persuade noble Lords opposite—after all, they have identified their position with clarity and force—but I hope they will not think it advisable to press this issue to a vote. Clause 28 deserves to be in a Bill that is part of a coherent whole in tackling this important issue. I have no doubt that noble Lords opposite recognise the importance of the issue. They cannot produce an alternative within the framework of the Bill, so I hope that they will allow the clause to remain and that the noble Lord, Lord De Mauley, will withdraw his amendment.