Mobile Phone and Broadband Prices

Lord Watts Excerpts

Tuesday 9th December 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

The resilience of our network is absolutely critical. A fibre network is more resilient to many shocks, so the move to fibre will provide more resilience in the future. It is very important that in this transition from the PSTN to the fibre network, vulnerable customers are supported and have the back-up they need in cases of power cuts, and so on. The transition from the PSTN to the other network has already taken place for a large number of consumers in this country and is well on track towards the final handover.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

My Lords, can I bore the House again? Our regulators are some of the worst in the world and they are letting the public down. We are not holding them to account. Is it not about time that some of these individuals got sacked and replaced by people who will protect the public?

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

There are very important roles for our regulators. There are also very important governance systems in place that govern how regulators work and how they are accountable to Parliament. I do not think there is any case at present to take the action my noble friend suggests.