Baroness Parminter
Main Page: Baroness Parminter (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)Growth and Infrastructure Bill
Baroness Parminter Excerpts
Baroness Parminter
Baroness Parminter
My Lords, Clause 8 as it stood would have set an extremely damaging precedent, removing key protections from our most cherished landscapes. My Amendment 36 sought to address that issue, enabling changes in secondary legislation to speed up the delivery of broadband in rural areas but not removing key protections against changing the long-standing duties in national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty.
As I made clear in Committee, I can see the argument for adding a further consideration to the Communications Act 2003 for the Secretary of State to have regard to promoting economic growth at the same time as other existing duties, which is what Clause 8(1) proposes. However, the disapplication of the duty to have regard to conserving beauty in other pieces of legislation would be a very disproportionate approach. Clearly the Government do not feel that my amendment gave quite the certainty that they thought they needed, while not undermining key protections for those landscapes. They have therefore drafted their own amendment, which in this group, and with the leave of the House I should like to make a few comments on it.
The Government’s Amendment 36A equates the “have regard” duty to proposed Section 109(2B) of the Communications Act 2003, so that the Secretary of State will be treated as automatically having complied with the “have regard” duties if they have complied with Section 109(2B). It means that the primary legislation in place since 1949 protecting our iconic landscapes remains unchanged. I am extremely grateful to the Government and in particular to the Minister, who has gone well beyond the bounds of the usual standards to listen to Members of this House and to meet with us and hear the seriously held concerns that we championed in Committee about the wider impacts of the clause as drafted. Their willingness to respond to our concerns sends a powerful signal that while the Government are committed to bringing broadband to the greatest number of people they are not intent on nibbling away at essential protection policies for our most valued landscapes. I beg to move.
Lord Judd
My Lords, I am very glad to support this amendment. It seems that what we are dealing with here in this whole clause, as we argued in Committee, is not only the policy inherent in the clause now but the threat that it offers for the future. Since the Second World War, Governments of all persuasions have consistently adhered to the principle that there is something so special in this asset of these unique areas of countryside in our country—which are enjoyed by our people and have this incalculable value as a place for physical and spiritual regeneration—that there must be absolutely no doubt whatever that the protection of what they are about and of their scenic uniqueness takes precedence over everything. The trouble is that, once the door is pushed open and left, after discussion and argument, just a little ajar, there is this danger of still further erosion.
I support my noble friend on the Front Bench, who has paid a warm tribute to the Minister. She has been outstanding in her commitment and courtesy to the House and to the Committee. I have always thought that she was a decent, civilised person, and the way in which she has responded to the criticisms that have been made have left me in absolutely no doubt about that whatever. I would like her to accept that we are trying to uphold her in those values which she so obviously embraces. I was having a private word with her at one point and unfortunately—although I understand it—by the time that legislation is on the Order Paper and being debated there has been an awful lot of intellectual and policy input and people are very committed to the position which they have put forward and on which they have worked in a dedicated way to try to get the draft as true as possible. Sometimes there comes a moment when the logical thing to do is to stop trying to perfect something that is not really right and just to say, “That one was interesting but it is not going to be in the Bill in the future”. However, it is a very difficult thing for all those who have been involved to accept that sort of provision. I hardly dare say, and I do not mean this in any aggressive or patronising way whatever, but in all of us—not least myself sometimes—face is a very important issue, and sometimes it becomes so in the legislative process.
The logical thing for this House to do is to adopt the amendments that have been put so clearly by the noble Baroness, Lady Parminter. I hope that the House will endorse her position.
Baroness Hanham
My Lords, I know it is not up to me to intervene again but as we come on to the next amendment it may be helpful to say that I will probably be able to give the noble Lord the assurances he seeks on that as well. With the leave of the House, I should like to answer the question of the noble Lord, Lord Marlesford, which was whether any other operators apart from BT will be able to use the BT infrastructure or whether they would have to put in their own. BT is under a regulatory obligation to share its infrastructure.
Baroness Parminter
“( ) The Secretary of State shall by regulation introduce a statutory code of practice specifying how operators of broadband networks to whom the electronic communications code is applied shall consult with local planning authorities.”
Baroness Parminter
My Lords, we all support the deployment of broadband in rural areas, and the key for us is how best we deliver that. I still do not think that the Government have made a conclusive case for the need to change the existing planning regime in terms of proving that existing arrangements are a barrier to delivering broadband. Few cases have been cited outside the national parks, and as my noble friend Lord Marlesford and the noble Baroness, Lady Whitaker, said, the national parks authorities are not inflexible regulators, bystanders or obstacles to broadband rollout.
Equally, I am disappointed that the Government have not published the responses to the latest consultation on their planning proposals prior to Report. Hearing stakeholder views could have helped our deliberations, thus enabling legislation. However, I understand why the Government want to introduce these changes to the planning regime, so we should seek to ensure a strong code of practice that delivers the best outcomes in deploying broadband infrastructure in our most valued landscapes.
I think a statutory code of practice to ensure best practice in siting infrastructure would be best, but I hear the argument that for such a code to be as effective as possible, it needs to be owned by planning authorities and broadband operators. Therefore, I hope that, in responding, the Minister will be able to confirm four things. The first thing is that the code of practice will be clear on mechanisms for dispute resolution between planning authorities and broadband operators when there are disagreements over siting. Given that the proposed changes give operators the final say on siting, it is important to seek agreement to ensure we do not end up with cabinets pepperpotting across our most treasured landscapes, causing detrimental impact to the landscape’s qualities and thus to the tourism industry that underpins economies in rural communities in our most highly visited and iconic landscapes.
The second is that the code will require the sharing of infrastructure where feasible: a critical issue that is not mentioned in the scope and guiding principles that have been drawn up to date. In this, I include pole sharing, where existing poles are available, and introducing processes so that broadband operators can be made aware of the opportunities to piggyback on to the work of energy providers who are undergrounding lines in the area.
The third is that the process for reviewing the success of the code and the trigger mechanism for deciding to make the code statutory is made clear. The final thing is that the anticipated date for the finalisation of the code is stated. Once this code is finalised, adherence to it can be incorporated as a contract requirement into publicly funded broadband deployment projects. As such, it is a key tool to ensuring the best siting of broadband infrastructure, and we need it finalised as soon as possible. I beg to move.
Lord Judd
My Lords, I warmly endorse this amendment and thank the noble Baroness, Lady Parminter, for introducing it. Across the whole history of legislation, I am afraid there is far too much evidence that codes and the like, without statutory authority, become useless in time. We have to remember—and we all pay tribute to the present Minister—that once new legislation is there, we are not necessarily going to be dealing with people like the current Minister. We cannot be certain who we will be dealing with. The current Minister is determined, and I am sure she means every word she says, that these things will be used to ensure what we all treasure about the parks, and so on. However, when she is gone, who will there be? I suggest to her that there are people with whom she must deal at the moment in her own Government who do not see it quite as she does. They have quite different thoughts about what this wonderful land might be used for. It is therefore really important to give the codes statutory authority.
As a vice-president of the Campaign for National Parks and as a patron of the Friends of the Lake District, I might say that the people who are, with their quality and commitment, turning concern into practical reality in all that they do to further the parks and the rest are deeply disturbed at the dangers that are there. They are not questioning the current Minister’s good intent but asking, “Where are the guarantees that these things that are being said in good will will actually be there for all to observe in future?”. Is this going to be another of those occasions on which we satisfy our own public profile by saying, “Well, we have this code”, or do we really mean what the code says? If we really mean it, let us for goodness’ sake make certain that it has the authority of the law behind it. This amendment is very important indeed.
Baroness Hanham
My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness for moving this amendment, which gives us an opportunity to talk about the code of practice and whether it should be statutory or voluntary. At present, we do not believe that the proposed code of best practice for the siting and appearance of fixed broadband infrastructure needs to be given statutory effect. It is important that the code is agreed collectively by all those concerned and given a chance to work as a voluntary code.
In any case, it would not be possible or necessary to bring forward a statutory code of practice in the way that I think is intended. Rather than a statutory code, the material principles of the code of practice would instead need to be included in amended Electronic Communications Code (Conditions and Restrictions) Regulations. The power to provide for these matters in regulations already exists in Section 109 of the Communications Act 2003.
However, additional regulations are not needed. I am pleased to report that work is progressing well in developing a voluntary code. The working group drafting the code has agreed its scope and some broad principles, which I shared with noble Lords last week. While the final detail is still to be worked through, we anticipate that it will provide a good foundation on which to build for the future of broadband. The code working group is made up of communications providers—that is, over and beyond BT—local planning authorities, Ofcom, the Office of the Telecommunications Adjudicator, English Heritage and the national parks. It is a representative group, which is engaging keenly in bringing the code to fruition.
The key to rolling out broadband quickly will be partnership working between communications providers and planning authorities. We want to see that work, and the voluntary code will be an essential tool in achieving that. I believe that there is real commitment from all sides to addressing the issues around how broadband is delivered, the co-operation and co-ordination necessary and the involvement of those affected in the provision and siting of the infrastructure.
Communications providers have committed to taking forward the drafting, but the scope of the code of best practice that was agreed last week includes the size and appearance of cabinets and new poles; their location, including the proximity to homes and businesses, road junctions and placement in the footway; early engagement with all interested parties including local planning authorities, highways authorities, other infrastructure providers in the area; and, in the case of new poles, engagement with communities through the local authority—that is, consultation between us. The noble Baroness, Lady Parminter, asked whether there would be mechanisms for dealing with disputes. Part of the code that is being worked up at the moment deals with precisely that: there will be mechanisms for dispute resolution, in the event that there is disagreement. The agreed scope also includes ensuring consistency of definitions and how the code relates to the various pieces of legislation that underpin it; and the consistency of application through the supply chain, including contractors.
Consultation with other infrastructure providers probably includes, most specifically, consulting electricity companies because they work in this area. The purpose of this is to ensure that, before deploying any new infrastructure, providers explore opportunities for sharing existing infrastructure, and that would include underground provision as well. Early consultation with the electricity companies provides an opportunity to co-ordinate deployment with any plans to underground electricity cables in the area, so where everyone is linking up, they ought to be able to use the same trenches and ensure that as much is hidden from view as possible. In the meeting that we had with people from BT, they made it clear that this is what they would want to do—where there are opportunities for undergrounding, they will do it. That is something else that would have to be negotiated with the local authority regarding the contracts that those local authorities hold with BDUK.
I reiterate that local authorities that are procuring networks through the Broadband Delivery UK programme still have the opportunity to influence the type of infrastructure that is deployed; they are the procuring authorities, after all. Local authorities can also make adherence to the code of practice a contractual requirement of the Broadband Delivery UK projects for contracts that they enter into themselves.
In addition, bringing forward regulations at this stage would delay implementation of the broadband support package that the Government set out in September last year, particularly if the voluntary code first needs to be produced and agreed to by all parties, which we are confident will be the case. Indeed, we asked about when these regulations in the code will come into effect. We expect the code to be completed and ready to come in at the end of May—so not too long now.
We are anxious to see broadband implemented as quickly as possible. The noble Lord, Lord Adonis, quoted some very interesting figures as regards the number of people who live and work within the national parks. It is not an insignificant number. All of those people, particularly in businesses, need access to fast broadband as soon as they can get it. The difficulty of placing a code on a statutory footing would be getting it in time and at this speed; it could disrupt the productive work that is taking place, which is supported all round.
Having said that, we recognise the concerns that have been expressed again today. We will be monitoring the operation of the code closely for both commercial and publicly funded broadband deployments. The noble Lord, Lord Adonis, also referred to the meeting with Ed Vaizey, the Minister in the other place. Reviewing how the code of practice is working will be undertaken by him; he will include this in his regular meetings, which I gather are taking place once a week with all the communications providers. In the first instance, we would expect communications and planning authorities to report back on any early lessons learnt so that they can be reflected in changes to the code of practice. As I made clear, the opportunities for them to do that are very real and there will continue to be very close monitoring at the other end.
If concerns are raised with the Government on adherence to the code, we will of course need to consider whether those concerns are best resolved through bringing forward additional regulation, so this is not being ruled out. I assure the House that if it is concluded that regulation is needed, the necessary regulations could be brought forward with urgency and it would be our aim to put them in place. That could be done within a matter of months should the need arise and subject, of course, to Parliament agreeing to those regulations.
I hope that I have made clear why we do not support this amendment, which would, particularly at the moment, introduce delay. We believe that there are enough checks and balances in the code itself and from the monitoring that will take place within the Minister’s office and by the local authorities themselves—they have a very real role and interest in this. For the time being, anyway, we do not need a statutory code: we believe that the voluntary code will work. I hope that, with the assurances I have given, the noble Baroness will be able to withdraw her amendment.
Baroness Parminter
My Lords, I am grateful for those reassurances from the Minister and for the Government’s commitment to a strong code of practice. I am also grateful for the clarification that should this voluntary code fail to deliver the outcomes that we in this House wish it to, and to which at this stage both the broadband operators and the planning authorities are committed, the Government will look seriously at bringing forward—at the earliest opportunity, through secondary legislation—opportunities to make this statutory. With that, I seek the leave of the House to withdraw my amendment.