Lord Steel of Aikwood
Main Page: Lord Steel of Aikwood (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Baroness Rawlings
The noble Lord, Lord Borrie, asked this question in the debate. I thought that I had assured him that Ofcom is not going on to the scrapheap, but it will be reviewed. I can assure him that, although changes will be made to the economic network regulatory functions of Ofcom, it is not being scrapped.
Lord Steel of Aikwood
In reference to the third part of her Answer, does the Minister recall that, at the end of the excellent debate last Thursday, the noble Lord, Lord Puttnam, referred to a phrase used about the coalition by my noble friend Lord Razzall in saying that for some of us this issue would be a “significant marker”. Will she recognise that my noble friend was understating the case and that the transfer of ownership of a major television news station into the hands of the owner of four national newspapers, regardless of whose hands they are, would be an illiberal media outrage and wholly unacceptable?
Baroness Rawlings
We had the debate last week, when we went through this. It is not in the hands of the Government; it is in the hands of the Secretary of State. It is in the hands of the Competition—