Charities Bill [HL]

Lord Bhatia Excerpts

Wednesday 7th July 2021 Grand Committee

[Lord Bhatia (Non-Afl) [V]]

My Lords, I welcome and support the Bill. The contributions of the noble Baroness, Lady Prashar, and the noble Lord, Lord Hodgson, were excellent. I have just one question for the Minister. Does she agree that the ethnic minority charity sector remains weak, and can she say whether the Government will provide special funding for that sector?

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall) (Lab)]

My Lords, the noble Baroness, Lady Gardner of Parkes, has withdrawn from the debate so I call the next speaker, the noble Lord, Lord Bilimoria.

Birmingham Commonwealth Games (Compensation for Enforcement Action) Regulations 2021

Lord Bhatia Excerpts

Wednesday 30th June 2021 Grand Committee

[Lord Bhatia (Non-Afl) [V]]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for her introduction of this regulation and the noble Lord, Lord Bilimoria, for what he said—I believe he should get not only a gold medal but a diamond one, if that were possible. We should all support the Birmingham authorities and wish them well, but they must ensure a speedy resolution of the claims made by the citizens of Birmingham. Has the Minister made any calculations of how many millions will be spent by tourists during the Games?

Gambling Reform

Lord Bhatia Excerpts

Tuesday 29th June 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

The aim of the current regulation around gambling advertising focuses particularly on making sure that adverts are not attractive to children and vulnerable people, but, as I mentioned in answer to an earlier question, that is being consulted on at the moment.

[Lord Bhatia (Non-Afl) [V]]

Does the Minister agree that gambling destroys families, both their income and their lives?

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

Gambling can destroy families. Our aim with the Gambling Act review is to make sure that the majority of gamblers, whose lives are not destroyed as a result, can continue to gamble safely, but we protect vulnerable people from the harm the noble Lord talks about.

Public Service Broadcasting (Communications and Digital Committee Report)

Lord Bhatia Excerpts

Thursday 27th May 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bhatia (Non-Afl) [V]]

My Lords, the way we watch television is changing. Twenty years ago, most people relied on five free-to-air terrestrial channels provided by public service broadcasters. These broadcasters now face competition from hundreds of other channels and online services, such as subscription video on demand services. SVODs such as Netflix and Amazon Prime have enjoyed rapid success. They have made available thousands of hours of content at relatively low prices and offer each viewer a personalised experience. Almost half of households now subscribe to an SVOD, while YouTube is also a major competitor.

This is at a time of widespread distrust of news, with digital technology playing an increasing role in public life. SVODs operate globally and have enormous resources, leading to concern that PSBs are priced out of the market for high-quality television, limiting their ability to create drama and documentaries that reflect, examine and promote the culture of the UK. We sought to understand the contemporary role of public service broadcasters, the financial pressures they face and the PSB compact—the obligations they take on—in the age of video on demand.

Our evidence overwhelmingly indicated that public service broadcasting is as important as ever to our democracy and culture as well as the UK’s image on the world stage. A wide range of witnesses and contributors have said how PSBs help to inform our understanding of the world, reflect the UK’s cultural identity and represent a range of people and viewpoints.

We are all aware of the competition faced by BBC and its budget and editorial problems, but, in most people’s minds, it is a national treasure, always reliable and mostly open to criticism. The BBC has always had a culture of reinventing itself as time moves on. Lastly, the BBC is the only place to get correct news from in most third-world countries, and it is extremely useful for that purpose.

Dormant Assets Bill [HL]

Lord Bhatia Excerpts

2nd reading
Wednesday 26th May 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bhatia (Non-Afl) [V]]

My Lords, the UK dormant assets scheme was established by the Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Act, and is administered by Reclaim Fund Ltd. The scheme was originally predicted to bring in almost £400 million, but contributions to date have exceeded this by 250%. Over the last decade, more than £745 million has been released for social and environmental initiatives across the UK. The scheme allows responsible businesses to have a positive impact on society in their environmental contributions. The Government have forced systematic change. Expanding the scheme is crucial to maintaining its potential impact in the UK by supporting industries to reunite people with their forgotten assets.

The Bill will deliver the Government’s commitment to enable additional types of dormant assets from the insurance and pensions, investment, wealth management, and securities sectors to be transferred into the scheme. This has the potential to make around £889 million available across the UK as it recovers from Covid-19.

I would like to praise the speeches of the noble Lords, Lord Adonis and Lord Blunkett, who covered the core of the Bill. I too ask the Minister: what will be the cost of administering the scheme, and which Minister will be responsible? Also, should these funds be transferred to a new charity, which could distribute them and be monitored by the Charity Commission?

Audiovisual Media Services (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020

Lord Bhatia Excerpts

Friday 27th November 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bhatia (Non-Afl) [V]]

My Lords, this SI is essential for Ofcom to be able to determine and justify which providers of video-sharing platform services it will regulate. Ofcom will have robust enforcement powers against any serious instances of egregious or illegal harm caused by inadequate regulatory systems of VSPs within UK jurisdiction, when it considers it appropriate to use them. This SI is made under the power in Section 8 of the EUWA to address failures of retained EU law to operate effectively or other deficiencies arising from the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU.

Ofcom will publish guidance in accordance with the Audiovisual Media Services Regulations 2020 and engage with VSPs to help them understand any new obligations. It will also have a duty in legislation to produce guidance on the application of the appropriate measures which VSPs can take to protect users. Ofcom’s guidance will make it clear that VSPs must take into account freedom of expression when designing and implementing their systems to protect users from the required areas of harm.

I have only one worry about this legislation. Increasingly, there are reports of children having their own computers, laptops and iPhones and spending many hours in their bedrooms looking at videos and games. Often, they fall into contact with predators who lead them into victimhood and self-harm. Can the Minister confirm whether Ofcom will have powers to introduce new rules to take legal action against providers, with heavy fines and/or imprisonment?

Charitable Incorporated Organisations (Insolvency and Dissolution) (Amendment) (No.2) Regulations 2020

Lord Bhatia Excerpts

Friday 9th October 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bhatia (Non-Afl) [V]]

My Lords, I welcome the regulations because charities play a vital role in protecting communities, individuals and other not-for-profit organisations. The provision of a moratorium is therefore important and will protect charities from going under. Charities often have a short-term cash-flow problem; these regulations provide breathing space for them.

The regulations also provide for new elements of the moratorium for charitable organisations to facilitate their rescue from financial difficulties. They are somewhat similar to chapter 11 provisions in the US. In difficult times, such as the Covid pandemic, many charities that owe rent or the repayment of loans given to community organisations find themselves in difficulty and unable to pay their creditors. These regulations will stop creditors attempting to take legal action against charities with defined new funds or grants. It becomes a legal battlefield as each creditor or debtor tries to get its money back. Often, the lawyers are the ones who gain the most. Arbitration—[Inaudible]—to avoid the legal costs.

As I said, charities play a vital role in supporting communities and individuals. All assistance must therefore be given to protect them. Indeed, the Government should consider giving grants or loans to charities in difficulty.

Telecommunications Infrastructure (Leasehold Property) Bill

Lord Bhatia Excerpts

Committee stage & Committee: 2nd sitting (Hansard) & Committee: 2nd sitting (Hansard): House of Lords
Tuesday 2nd June 2020 Lords Chamber

It is therefore crucial that there is an evaluation of this legislation’s impact on 1 gigabit broadband accessibility over at least a six-month period to ensure that the potential of this sector to aid recovery after the pandemic is assured. There should be ongoing reviews to ensure that it is not only the issue of accessing houses of multiple occupation that prevents the further rollout of services. Further legislation should be recommended to ensure that the sector can achieve its greatest potential for individuals, businesses and public services alike. As my noble friend Lord Kennedy said, this proposed new clause confirms that the Government are on track.

[Lord Bhatia (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, I did not participate in the previous debates on this Bill because my broadband system was not fully connected. It was difficult to see or to print out the Hansard reports of the previous sessions.

I wish to speak to Amendment 22 and largely support what the noble Lords, Lord Adonis and Lord Clement-Jones, have said. The amendment would enable the court to make an order requiring a landlord to allow an operator to provide an electronic communication service to a leased premises. Such a service has become very important in the current Covid-19 climate, when many of us are housebound.

It is very disturbing to hear that BT might sell off Openreach. If that is true, all the timetables and budgets will have to be revised, and it will have huge consequences for the people who need broadband for their business and for individuals in their homes. Due to the Covid-19 lockdown, everyone is homebound and working from home. To participate in this debate, I have had to print out a copy of the Bill and the Hansard reports of the previous debates. In my home, I use Virgin’s services. My daughter uses BT internet. Both systems have strengths and weaknesses but are largely reliable.

My Virgin system is excellent and rarely fails, but when it fails it is a big problem. Some months ago, the Virgin fibre service had an unfortunate accident. Someone had slashed through the fibre cables, which, as I understand it, are deep in the ground. It took some weeks before the engineers, who worked day and night, traced the location of the fibre that had been cut and had to be reconnected. On the telephone—the only way of contacting Virgin—we were told that the system would soon be back in service, and finally the service was restored.

As I said earlier, there was a weakness, but users have been given no compensation for the system failure. There was no email service through which Virgin could be contacted. The only way of doing so was by telephone, and it took many hours to be connected, as thousands of users were trying to reach Virgin. As I said, to date, no compensation has been received. The problem with BT internet is that it is provided through open copper wires, which can be cut down due to falling trees or other accidents. As a result, delays are inevitable.

Although the debate has centred around blocks of flats and tenants who are unable to get internet, there is little or no mention of citizens in urban areas who have low incomes and are unable to pay the charges for the service. The Covid crisis has made many people jobless, as they are on zero-hours contracts. Some time ago one often used to hear mention of IT and broadband poverty.

I have three questions for the Minister. First, will he please clarify whether BT is going to sell off Openreach? Secondly, if Openreach is sold, is there a plan to ensure that the Openreach buyer will be able to continue the services seamlessly and on the same budget and timeframe? Thirdly, will the Government provide free services to those who are unable to pay for broadband and other services?

[Lord Liddle (Lab)]

There have been some excellent speeches in this debate and I fully support the amendment moved so ably by the noble Lord, Lord Fox. We are debating matters of fundamental political importance, and I disagree with the suggestion of the noble Baroness who said that this can all be left to regulators. The fact is that in these areas far too much has been left to regulators. These are questions of politics and whether Ministers are really driving progress. That is why I think that regular reports to Parliament are a very good idea.

When listening to the noble Baroness, Lady Barran, and the noble Lord, Lord Parkinson, I have felt that the Bill has been presented to us as a sort of trifling or very minor measure, but in fact it is on a huge subject. In the Conservative manifesto, as I am sure the noble Lord, Lord Parkinson, will confirm in his concluding remarks, the Government made a very bold commitment to full fibre and gigabit-capable broadband for every home and business by 2025. It would be good if the Minister could reaffirm that that is indeed the Government’s commitment. The case for it has grown: we saw in the general election the cry from the left-behind areas of the country. They put their trust in Mr Johnson because he said that he would look after them. It is absolutely essential to the fostering of new enterprise in, for instance, west Cumbria, where I live, that we have top-class, gigabit-capable broadband. The question is: will we get it? It is a big political question and the Government have to satisfy us that they will deliver on those promises.

The Covid crisis has made the question of access to broadband also a fundamental question of equality. I am struck by a lot of the research into the damage to children’s opportunities being done by schools being closed. Some of the greatest damage is where families do not have access to broadband and where schools are not providing teaching online, yet those inequalities could be addressed by a vigorous Government who were prepared to make sure that the infrastructure was available to everybody.

I support this legislation, which gives the service providers due rights over landlords. I am worried that it is not enough. The noble Baroness, Lady Barran, descended into lots of verbiage—if I might put it so crudely—about the balance of powers in this Bill, which makes me think that, actually, it does not really give the service providers what they need to aggressively provide a more universal service. We cannot put obligations on providers to provide a universal service unless they have the muscle to be able to do it.

In the Conservative manifesto, not only was £5 billion of public funding promised to promote these digital objectives, but

“a raft of legislative changes to accelerate progress”

will be introduced. I suppose this Bill is one of those legislative changes. We know we have got the telecoms security Bill coming later this year, and we know that there is a furious debate going on in government about what it should say. How much are those debates about the telecoms security Bill going to delay the 2025 objective? The Government should be straight with the electorate about the trade-offs here. We need an indication in the Bill of how far it is going towards this raft of legislative changes to produce great progress, what other legislative changes are going to be proposed, and on what timescale. If this is a trifling measure, what is the big measure that is going to produce the results?

I very much support this amendment and look forward to the Minister’s reply, because I want to see clear commitment to action that will be reported on to Parliament on a regular basis.

Covid-19: Museums, Galleries and Historic Buildings

Lord Bhatia Excerpts

Thursday 21st May 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bhatia (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, the country is at a standstill due to Covid-19. The real heroes are the doctors, nurses, bus and train drivers, the fire department and the police, who are putting their lives on the line so that we can be safely isolated. However, we should not forget the silent objects, such as churches, cathedrals and art galleries, which need attention. The noble Lord, Lord Cormack, pointed out some time ago in your Lordships’ House that bats live in the lofts of these sacred buildings; their droppings fall on the floor and sometimes on the cathedrals’ sacred objects. Unless these droppings are removed immediately, they could permanently damage these churches. Will the Minister ensure that the Government allocate funding to these important churches and cathedrals for cleaners with the skills to clean these heritage buildings?

[The Deputy Speaker (Baroness Newlove) (Con)]

Lord Griffiths of Burry Port? I am afraid that we will have to go on to the next speaker, the noble Baroness, Lady Randerson.