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Digital Economy Bill [HL]

My Lords, this amendment addresses an important issue. It is essential that subscribers have the ability to appeal against notifications and decisions, both in terms of the appeals structure being in place and in terms of the ability to utilise the appeals process without undue financial concern. Thus far I am happy to agree with the noble Lords. However, I am not convinced that the sort of social and economic impact assessment advocated is proportionate, nor do I think that we need to see this in the Bill. Rather, this is exactly the sort of issue that should be raised as part of the consultation that we would conduct on a statutory instrument on the sharing of costs in the event of technical obligations being imposed. I understand that we need to look at this in the round and that the issue is not just the refundable fee, which we have discussed before in this House. We have given assurances on that front: there should not be costs that would inhibit the process of appeal. However, because this is such an important issue, it will certainly be part of the consultation on both the statutory instrument that would introduce technical obligations and the statutory instrument that would be needed to order the sharing of costs in—I stress this—the event of technical measures being applied. The consultation that we will shortly launch applies purely to the regime under initial obligations. We will of course be asking within that consultation whether and how subscriber contribution should be dealt with, although, as I have said on a number of occasions, we have given our views about appeal charges not inhibiting an appeal at the initial obligations stage. That being the case, and with the assurance to my noble friend that I fully appreciate the importance of what the amendment is addressing, I hope that he will feel able to withdraw it confident that the issue will be fully and properly addressed when it becomes relevant.