Digital Economy Bill (Eleventh sitting)

Debate between Matt Hancock and Christian Matheson

Committee Debate: 11th sitting: House of Commons
Tuesday 1st November 2016 Public Bill Committees

[Christian Matheson]

Will the Minister tell us which trade unions are actively involved in the review?

[Matt Hancock]

I have no doubt that Matthew Taylor will get in contact with lots of trade unions. It is a good idea to take a cross-party approach. The review will last for about six months and among other things it will consider security, pay and rights, skills and progression, and specifically the appropriate balance of rights and responsibilities of new business models and whether the definitions of employment status need to be updated to reflect new forms of working such as on-demand platforms. It will tackle some of those issues. With that explanation, I hope that the hon. Lady will see that we are taking a sensible, reasonable approach and will withdraw her new clause.

Digital Economy Bill (Tenth sitting)

Debate between Matt Hancock and Christian Matheson

Committee Debate: 10th sitting: House of Commons
Thursday 27th October 2016 Public Bill Committees

[Matt Hancock]

That was an excellent assessment of the pros, cons and challenges around the proposed changes to appeals. Much of the analysis and thinking that the hon. Lady has just set out is what we went through in coming to the same conclusion that it is sensible to change the appeals process.

I will set out some of the detail of the changes and then I will answer the specific questions that were put. The clause alters the standard review applied by the Competition Appeal Tribunal when deciding appeals brought under the Competitions Act 2003 against decisions made by Ofcom. This is in order to make the appeals process more efficient. The changes will not apply to appeals against decisions made by Ofcom using powers under the Competition Act 1998 or the Enterprise Act 2002.

Currently, appeals can be brought and decided on the merits of a case, and this exceeds and effectively gold-plates article 4 of the EU framework directive that requires that the merits of a case are taken into account in any appeal. The result of this over-implementation is an unnecessarily intensive and burdensome standard of review that can result, as the hon. Lady set out, in very lengthy and costly appeals litigation, which can hinder timely and effective regulation, and risks Ofcom taking an overly risk-averse approach to regulating the sector properly.

[Christian Matheson (City of Chester) (Lab)]

Would it also not give Ofcom much more credibility in the eyes of the organisations that it regulates, because they would realise that they had much less ability to overturn its decisions?

[Matt Hancock]

That is right. We heard the evidence from Three and TalkTalk, who are in favour of this change. That is no surprise, as they are essentially the insurgents in the infrastructure market, and the incumbents were less keen on this change. We also heard from Which? and Citizens Advice, which explained that it is no surprise that large companies want to keep the status quo.

It is not my job to bask in the reflected glory of the appreciation from Three or TalkTalk, nor is it to have undue concern, rather than due concern, for the complaints of those who disagree with this change.

Digital Economy Bill (Sixth sitting)

Debate between Matt Hancock and Christian Matheson

Committee Debate: 6th sitting: House of Commons
Thursday 20th October 2016 Public Bill Committees

[Matt Hancock]

Because I think the BBFC is best at making the very nuanced distinctions between different types of material and their regulation that are required. The way it has landed, with the two regulators sitting side by side, but with the aim that the result of the regulation is the same, is the better way of doing it.

[Christian Matheson (City of Chester) (Lab)]

May I seek clarification from the Minister? Is there scope for a mechanism whereby the two regulatory authorities can pass items between each other if one is better suited to judge an item that has been referred to the other?

[Matt Hancock]

There is clarity in the Bill about what is under the jurisdiction of one regulator and what is under the jurisdiction of the other. I will, though, take that away and seek to give an assurance that the two regulators will work together to ensure that that boundary is dealt with adequately. There is flexibility in the Bill to ensure that that can happen. I cannot speak for Ofcom or the BBFC, but it would seem to me to be perfectly reasonable and obvious that the boundary has to work properly. I would not like to over-specify that in the Bill because of the nature of changes in technology. The distinction between broadcast and on-demand services is changing as technology develops, and it is better to leave it structured as it is. I am sure that both regulators will have heard the hon. Gentleman’s important point that the boundary between the two needs to be dealt with appropriately and that they need to talk to each other.

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[Matt Hancock]

That tells us all we need to know about consultants. There we are. I commit that we will keep the effectiveness of the legislation under review. I know that that will happen anyway because I know that my hon. Friend the Member for Devizes is not going to let this one go.

[Christian Matheson]

How might the Minister review the ongoing review to ensure that progress is being made?

[Matt Hancock]

We will have a continuous review of the ongoing review. With that, I urge the hon. Gentleman to withdraw the amendment.

Question put, That the amendment be made.

Digital Economy Bill (Fourth sitting)

Debate between Matt Hancock and Christian Matheson

Committee Debate: 4th sitting: House of Commons
Tuesday 18th October 2016 Public Bill Committees

[The Minister for Digital and Culture (Matt Hancock)]

It is a pleasure to get going on the Bill proper and to respond to the first amendments. It is undoubtedly true that reliable fast broadband is now seen as the norm and not the nice-to-have—that unites the whole Committee. We are committed to ensuring that everyone can enjoy the benefits of decent broadband connectivity. It was in our manifesto and it is one of the core purposes of the Bill.

Amendment 56 seeks to ensure that the guidance around the characteristics of the connection is in the Bill—for instance, that the USO can include both upload and download speeds. I entirely understand the intent and the clause as drafted is sufficiently flexible to allow for that. The statement of intent that the hon. Member for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk referred to, which was shared with the Committee last week, outlines a broad range of factors that need to be considered in designing the USO, including the level of service. That includes not just download and upload speeds, but the appropriateness and level of other parameters such as latency and capacity—and potentially customer service.

Ofcom has been commissioned to provide detailed technical analysis and recommendations to support decision making on the design of the broadband USO. Allowing Ofcom to do that work and ensuring that it is specified in detail is better than putting that on the face of the Bill, because it will allow us precisely to future-proof the design of the USO in the way that the hon. Gentleman demands. The decisions on the scope of the USO, the technical specifications, including download and upload speeds, and any service standards need to be taken in the light of Ofcom’s advice, which is to be provided by the end of this year, before the Bill concludes all its stages.

Amendment 83 seeks to include mobile coverage within the scope of the guidance on the broadband USO. The hon. Member for Sheffield, Heeley made many good points and put them eloquently and powerfully. The position is that the universal service directive, which currently provides the regulatory framework for the broadband USO, is about the provision of a fixed internet connection of an appropriate speed to a fixed location. Depending on who is designated as the universal service provider or providers, and on the specification of the USO, there is scope for the USO connection to be provided using mobile technology. However, the directive does not require the USO to include mobile geographic coverage.

In any event, as the hon. Lady said, through the use of licence conditions we have delivered on a commitment to near universal mobile coverage. I would question, therefore, whether there is a case for a USO for mobile, because of those commitments. The licence obligations to which the hon. Lady correctly referred are part and parcel of a deal that included the reform to the electronic communications code—so everything that she asks for was covered in that deal. It is precisely because the two are linked that they are fair, both to the industry and, more importantly, to consumers. As she said, the mobile network operator roll-out plans provide for £5 billion of investment, as a result of that deal and commitment.

[Christian Matheson (City of Chester) (Lab)]

When we talk about notspots, we are not just talking about parts of the highlands of Scotland. Indeed, parts of rural Cheshire, just a few miles from Chester, are not covered. Does the Minister honestly think that the deal he is talking about is working well?

[Matt Hancock]

The deal is to be delivered by the end of 2017. We will hold the MNO’s feet to the fire, because it has a legal and contractual requirement to deliver on that by the end of next year. I know the area of the country that the hon. Member talks about very well—it is where I spent the first 18 years of my life. There are some parts where the mobile signal is no better now than it was back then. In Suffolk this weekend, I found large swathes of my own constituency to be without a mobile signal, so I feel the hon. Gentleman’s pain. That is why delivery on this commitment by the MNOs is so important. The deal as agreed, which is a legally binding commitment, will result in nearly 100% of UK premises receiving 3G/4G data coverage, and 98% coverage to the UK landmass by the end of 2017.

That includes the new emergency services contract, which is being delivered by EE. That has to have a huge spread over the geography of the UK, and the same infrastructure will be available to customers of that provider. The deal sufficiently provides for the demands that were eloquently put by Opposition Front Benchers and, more importantly, clause 10 will enhance Ofcom’s powers to enforce the licence conditions, which we all agree are sensible, against the MNOs.

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[Matt Hancock]

We all agree that broadband is a modern necessity, and I am delighted at the Committee’s tone in supporting the goals we have set out to drive connectivity across the whole of Britain. The legal framework for introducing a USO seems to have been warmly received on both sides of the Committee. I will respond to the individual points that have been made.

First, on the ambition, thankfully we now have a Bill to introduce the framework for delivering the high level of connectivity that we need. Baroness Harding told us in our first evidence session that

“I think it is a great thing.”––[Official Report, Digital Economy Public Bill Committee, 11 October 2016; c. 10, Q15.]

We also heard the Bill described as an “incredibly important step”. As Pete Moorey from Which? said:

“There are critical things in the Bill that will start to bring the telecoms sector kicking and screaming into the 21st century.”––[Official Report, Digital Economy Public Bill Committee, 11 October 2016; c. 24, Q47.]

That is support for the importance and direction of the Bill.

On the specific point, Ofcom’s consultation on the market structure, which the hon. Member for Sheffield, Heeley mentioned, closed on 4 October and Ofcom will respond shortly. The timing is a matter for Ofcom, and it would be improper of me to pre-empt it. She is right that the threshold will be determined by the consultation, and it is wrong to try to pre-empt that consultation process. Instead, we should do things properly.

The hon. Lady will no doubt welcome an update on new homes. We have a new commitment that any development of more than 30 homes, rather than more than 100 homes, will have fibre connections and, as of 1 January, building regulations will require superfast connections in new buildings. The sensible suggestion from both sides of the House that new houses should be built with what is needed for the future has now been enacted.

[Christian Matheson]

I am pleased to hear that building regulations are changing. Will the Minister also have conversations with his colleagues in the Department for Communities and Local Government to change planning regulations so that newly built premises, properties and estates are ducted and cabled ready for connection?

[Matt Hancock]

I will look into that. I will be surprised if that does not happen already, but I will take it up.

Digital Economy Bill (First sitting)

Debate between Matt Hancock and Christian Matheson

Committee Debate: 1st sitting: House of Commons
Tuesday 11th October 2016 Public Bill Committees

[Christian Matheson]

There needs to be,

“clarity over the new system of valuation for site rents that is fair and equitable as well as a robust Code of Practice to ensure landowners, infrastructure providers and mobile phone operators are clear”.

Is there not a danger of conflict between looking after the needs of large landowners to get fair wayleave agreements on their properties and potentially preventing the roll-out of broadband and infrastructure services to other rural residents because we are keeping costs higher to benefit the landowners?

James Legge: I think we recognise that the new communications code must reduce the cost of putting in the infrastructure, both on public and private land, and must also encourage the sharing of masts and access to infrastructure. There is a difference between saying that we will do it and, say, paying a private landowner nothing, and paying them something that is reasonable and fair, taking account of the way in which we treat other utilities. I know that our view differs slightly, though, from some of the other landowning organisations that are focused on land ownership. We are very much focused on delivery to the consumer, but we think it should be fair, equitable and clear.

[Matt Hancock]

Q May I clarify that? You said that the new communication code must do those things. Did you mean by that, that it does do those things and that that is right, or that you do not think it fits what you set out? What you set out is entirely concurrent with the Bill.

James Legge: Yes, and we are supportive of that. We support the fact that we have got to start seeing broadband on the same par as a utility, as opposed to something where there is a premium cost to the provider, which limits provision—

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Matt Hancock and Christian Matheson

Thursday 8th September 2016 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

The hon. Lady has made an excellent case for an application to become the city of culture 2021. I am hugely looking forward to the city of culture 2017 in Hull next year. No doubt her comments will be picked up. I would love to come to Sunderland soon to see some of these things for myself.

[Christian Matheson (City of Chester) (Lab)]

4. What recent progress has been made on the implementation of the Leveson review; and if she will make a statement.