Digital Economy Bill

Lord Inglewood Excerpts

2nd reading (Hansard): House of Lords
Tuesday 13th December 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Inglewood (Con)]

My Lords, I believe that in practice this welcome Bill will be one of the most pervasive in its impact of any legislation we are currently considering in this House. It is in a sector where the world is probably changing as fast as anywhere. Indeed, these days, the future is closer to us than it has ever been before. Hence, it will not be the last word on anything, but it matters because it sets the framework for the development of the operation of the digital economy in the foreseeable future. We must, of course, remember that that economy works through and across legal jurisdictions without paying much heed to traditional boundaries.

The Bill’s detailed provisions will take effect in all kinds of ways, probably many of them unexpected, which in turn may radically affect everyday life in this country and beyond it. This will be especially true in the age of the internet of things, which is already dawning. In this brave new world, communications, which are traditionally perceived as person-to-person transactions, will be replaced by devices talking to other devices, instructing myriad tasks with little or no human intervention. It will go far beyond computer dealing in the financial markets or robotic milking of dairy cows, or even adjusting the level of central heating in one’s Cumbrian home from a Spanish golf course, as a friend of mine does.

The detail of all this involves science and processes way beyond my own expertise, and my knowledge is too scant fully to understand it. Having said that, I know that the starting point is connectivity, as has already been mentioned in the debate—in particular, connectivity coupled with adequate bandwidth. That is why the clauses on the universal service obligation in respect of broadband are, in my view, so important.

When I had the honour and good fortune to chair your Lordships’ Communications Committee, one of the first reports for which I had any responsibility was on the rollout of broadband. In drafting that report, we anguished, as the noble Lord, Lord Gordon of Strathblane, commented, about whether a universal service obligation should be legally enforceable. After considerable deliberation, we concluded that it should be a political obligation, not a statutory legal one. However, like the noble Lord, with the benefit of hindsight I think we were wrong.

Now that 2016 is drawing to a close, political commentators are all discussing the revolutionary events of the year that is about to pass. They include Brexit, Trump’s election in the United States and the Italian referendum. On one level, each event is quite different, yet on another they are the same—an uprising by those who feel they are being left behind by the world as it evolves. They have nothing directly to do with the apparent subject matter of the poll behind them. In this country, there is no bigger division than between those who have decent broadband and those who do not. I should declare an interest: I live in rural Cumbria, in a near mobile not-spot—if I want to get mobile from one operator I have to go out of the house on to the lawn—and I have lousy broadband. The consequence is not merely that I cannot read the Sunday papers at breakfast on my iPlayer—that does not really matter. Rather, there are myriad entrepreneurs and, quite simply, ordinary households who cannot enjoy the connectivity of much of the rest of this country. This kills off many small businesses and erodes the quality of life and the economic potential of these disadvantaged areas. Rural Cumbria is not alone, and neither does this apply only in the countryside. Even a short distance from where we are now, there are very disadvantaged areas measured by this criterion.

It is often said that the modern world is a huge, complex network, but it is not if you cannot join it. Anyone who doubts that should look at the correspondence columns of local papers in these areas, where the anger, frustration and disillusionment of those who live there is plain for all to see. Equally, I am quite sure that such views are to be found in MPs’ incoming mail. It is some satisfaction to me that it is not my responsibility to have to read it.

Governments trumpet their successes in the rollout of superfast broadband—itself a rather weasel phrase—and the availability of squillions of megabits in the favoured corners of south-east England and the metropolises. But that is absolutely no help if you are not connected. In this respect, much of the contemporary UK is like that of Disraeli’s. There are two nations in digital connectivity: those who have it and those who do not; and those who can use it, and those who cannot. If you are in the second category, underprovision and lack of availability create a real sense of alienation and antagonism.

No one is suggesting that it can be identical everywhere, but I believe that there is a dawning recognition that a necessary degree of equivalence consistent with an even-handed approach to the provision of essential national infrastructure is important. As I said, this is not achieved by proclaiming wonderful successes in further improving what the “haves” have got, while the “have-nots” still have more or less nothing. It is for this reason that the provisions which provide a legal basis for USO are to be welcomed. I would like to think that they represent a political commitment much stronger than the legal phrases in which it is drafted. That is how I interpreted my noble friend the Minister’s opening remarks.

I turn briefly to a different topic for the second and final part of my remarks. In the debate in this House on the BBC charter and agreement on 12 October, I expressed the opinion that the BBC charter should be set in a statutory framework. I still subscribe to that view and the approach that I and others have endorsed on that and other occasions, and on which the noble Lord, Lord Lester, elaborated. There is no point in repetition, but I endorse what he said and suggest that the opportunity of this Bill to take it forward should be grasped. After all, nobody needs to be reminded that the use of the royal prerogative is a rather controversial political topic at present; we are living at a time when the desirability and requirement to consider whether checks and balances should surround it is prevalent. In my view, there are a number of areas where this is so, and this is one of them.

Finally, I might have discussed a huge number of other points that have been discussed by other speakers this afternoon. I have said enough for now, but I may well come back to some of them later. In conclusion, this is a desirable and necessary Bill which I support, despite having a few reservations about certain aspects—to which I shall, if I may, return on another occasion.