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Digital Economy Bill [HL]

My Lords, the disquiets I had at Second Reading have not been dissipated, and I join the noble Lord, Lord Whitty, in many of his remarks. My disappointment is that normally this House is assiduous in making sure that due process is seen to be done in Bills. The fact that we are not going to be allowed to debate and come to a conclusion on Amendment 6 reflects poorly on the Government, but I accept that the usual channels have no doubt agreed that it will not be debated. However, the amendment encapsulates some of the principles that the noble Lord, Lord Whitty, was talking about. The Bill refers to a study of the efficacy of techniques, but this House will not be allowed to take a view on whether an economic and social impact assessment should be undertaken. That is the heart of the matter. People like me who worry about what is in the Bill have never disputed that the creative industries need protection—I thoroughly agree that they do. However, I have felt all the way through the Bill that there are not sufficient checks and balances to protect the consumer. In particular, when a person, an institution, an internet café or a university is accused of transgressing these rules, it will hit the individual very hard. How will they disprove the accusations? They will have to employ a computer expert to counter the argument but there will not be legal aid for this; the money will not come forth. We should have debated these issues in this House. I believe that we would have come to the conclusion that we should protect the consumer better. The real problem is that the other House also will not be able to come to any conclusion about this issue; its Members will get only a Second Reading. They will not have a chance to put amendments forward on behalf of their constituents to make the Bill better balanced. Given the imminent election, it is incumbent on the Government to include the checks, balances and concessions for which we have asked.