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Digital Economy Bill [HL]

I welcome government Amendment 28, which is the Government’s response to the important points powerfully put forward in Committee by the noble Viscount, Lord Bridgeman, and the Liberal Democrat Front Benches. It is clear that the Government’s proposition in the amendment does not command complete assent from the other side of the House, but it none the less represents an advance. This is an instance of the excellent quality of scrutiny that the Digital Economy Bill has received in your Lordships’ House. I expect that, in a very few minutes, we shall send it to another place, but I do not have the same confidence that it will receive the same quality of scrutiny in the House of Commons; indeed, my noble friend Lord Davies just now anticipated that it was improbable that the Digital Economy Bill would proceed beyond Second Reading there. I was startled by what my noble friends Lord Young and Lord Davies said about the wash-up, those negotiations between the Front Benches of the parties in the dying days of a Parliament before it is dissolved. I would like at least substantial elements of the Bill to go through on to the statute book, in particular Clause 43 as amended by the Government. We must contemplate the possibility that the view will be taken, as at the end of previous Parliaments, that measures contained in Bills which have not received a Committee stage in both Houses of Parliament should not be permitted to go forward on to the statute book. I would from the point of view of the need for this legislation be sorry if that were to happen, although I also recognise that there are important constitutional arguments as to why it should. In the event that elements of the Bill that we want to see go forward and become law do not do so at the end of this Parliament, will my noble friend Lord Young instruct his officials to make the best progress that they can in the period following dissolution in continuing to refine the Bill, and in particular to draft the regulations that would eventually be published under the Bill so that they can be put out to consultation as soon as possible? We could then look forward to a new and improved digital economy Bill being published early in the first Session of the new Parliament—I do not think that there is any significant party political controversy in relation to it. All the interests affected would be able to have their concerns and views carefully considered in the consultation on the regulations. When the new Bill was introduced in the first Session, Parliament would be able to examine it with a great deal more assurance than has been the case this time around. We would look forward to the prospect of it relatively speedily and uncontroversially getting on to the statute book. It may be that the major parts of the Bill will go forward on to the statute book, but we should at least contemplate the possibility that they will not.