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Communications Act 2003 (Maximum Penalty for Persistent Misuse of Network or Service) Order 2010

My Lords, I thank the Committee for its consideration of the draft instrument today. I think we have all agreed that this is an important issue, and I have been interested in the questions that have arisen from it. The noble Lord, Lord Young, rightly says that during his time as Minister he did a lot of work on this, and I am really only finishing the work that he started. I am delighted to do so today. The noble Lord asked two questions. One was how people are going to be informed of the increase in the penalty. I am told that this will be publicised by BIS and Ofcom, and that Ofcom has a statement on persistent misuse on its website, which is kept updated. I do not know if that is the best that it could do; I am always worried that decisions are taken and then not best spread in the ways that we would hope. I sometimes wonder why we do not use magazines more often; we all read magazines, books and so on, and there are many other ways of doing this rather than just electronically. It is a good question and I would like to see a better answer than this, from us and from Ofcom. The noble Lord’s second question was about requiring companies to confirm in writing that they are fully compliant. Companies are required to abide by Ofcom’s persistent misuse guidelines, which they receive on their website. Those are the answers to both his questions, which I hope he will find partially satisfactory.