Communications Bill

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Mr. Greenway: I anticipate that you, Mr. Gale, will not wish to have a clause stand part debate. Therefore, I wish to ask the Minister a question about the content board. It arises from my reading of the clause. Subsection (4) states that there is to be a person on the content board who represents

''the following parts of the United Kingdom—

(a) England,

(b) Scotland,

(c) Wales, and

(d) Northern Ireland''.

That is sensible.

Subsection (5) states that the person who represents the United Kingdom should also be capable of representing

''the interests and opinions of persons living in all the different regions of England.''

I am unsure what kind of person that would be.

Dr. Howells: That would be you, John—a Yorkshireman.

Mr. Greenway: I am very grateful for that comment. I was not going to ask the Minister about remuneration and pension but he has now tempted me to do so: that might be a good job application to fill out.

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Subsection (6) states:

''The validity of any proceedings of the Content Board shall not be affected by any failure by OFCOM to comply with subsection (4) or (5).''

That begs a question: what constitutes a quorum of the content board?

Dr. Howells: I was hoping that another hon. Member would rise, because I am trying to find out the answer to that question.

These amendments would require Ofcom to appoint a non-executive member of Ofcom—other than the chairman—to be deputy chairman of the content board. I welcome the decision to designate Mr. Richard Hooper as the first chairman of that board. Currently, he is a non-executive member and the deputy chairman of the main board.

Subsection (7) states that the membership of the content board should predominantly consist of lay members—

''persons who are neither members nor employees of OFCOM.''

That lay membership is valuable; it will enable the board to be representative of many different aspects of public interest.

Other members of Ofcom may also be members of the content board, and I understand that Ofcom currently intends to appoint more of its members to the board. However, the Government do not believe that Ofcom should be burdened with even more detailed statutory obligations about the membership or internal structure of the content board. Ofcom should decide whether to appoint one of its members as deputy chairman or to leave that decision to their appointees on the content board. Flexibility will be crucial if Ofcom is to be effective.

We recognise the risk that the hon. Member for South Cambridgeshire identified of overload on the content board. I intended to make the following statement when we addressed clause 12, but instead I shall do so now: the Government intend to move an amendment that will increase Ofcom's flexibility slightly when determining the extent of the board's contribution to its work. That small flexibility was sought by Lord Currie. At present, any committee of Ofcom that is not solely advisory must include a member or employee of Ofcom. We propose to provide that any such committee that considers content matters may be formed with a member of the content board instead of a member or employee of Ofcom. That would allow Ofcom to establish a committee to consider fairness complaints, which would relieve the board of a resource-intensive task and provide a route of appeal for the remaining members of the content board. We envisage achieving that by amending the Office of Communications Act 2002 and I shall ensure that members of the Committee see the amendment in good time before we consider the relevant clause of this Bill.

I shall now address the question asked by the hon. Member for Ryedale about what constitutes a quorum for the content board because the answer has arrived from an unknown source. He will not be surprised to hear that that is for Ofcom to determine—

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[Laughter.]—but as the law stands, a determination committee of Ofcom must contain a board member of Ofcom or an Ofcom official. I shall speak about that further when we consider clause 12.

Mr. Lansley: I am grateful to the Minister for his response. I understand that his objective, as shown by the additional amendment to which he referred, is to provide greatly flexibility for Ofcom rather than prescribing how it will work. I think that Ofcom will have to go down the route described in the amendments in practice, but if the Government want to resist the amendments, so be it. I shall not press the matter further and I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.

Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.

Amendment proposed: No, 177, in

clause 11, page 11, line 20, at end insert—

'(4A) In making such appointments with respect to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, OFCOM must consult with the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales and the Northern Ireland Assembly as appropriate.'.—[Mr. Simon Thomas.]

Question put, That the amendment be made:—

The Committee divided: Ayes 3, Noes 17.

Division No. 4]

AYES
Allan, Mr. Richard Harvey, Nick
Thomas, Mr. Simon

NOES
Bryant, Mr. Chris Coaker, Mr. Vernon Fabricant, Michael Greenway, Mr. John Hoban, Mr. Mark Howells, Dr. Kim Joyce, Mr. Eric Lansley, Mr. Andrew McGuire, Mrs. Anne
Miller, Mr. Andrew Murphy, Mr. Jim Palmer, Dr. Nick Picking, Anne Robathan, Mr. Andrew Robertson, John White, Brian Whittingdale, Mr. John

Question accordingly negatived.

Clause 11 ordered to stand part of the Bill.

Clause 12

Functions of the Content Board

Mr. Whittingdale: I beg to move amendment No. 148, in

clause 12, page 12, line 23, at end insert—

'(1A) At any such time that a function has been conferred on the Board that function shall not also be exercised by OFCOM.'.

The Chairman: With this it will be convenient to take the following: Amendment No. 13, in

clause 12, page 12, line 26, at end insert—

'( ) functions arising under sections 307 and 315 of this Act;'.

Amendment No. 61, in

clause 12, page 12, line 38, at end insert—

'(3A) The Content Board's functions should have sufficient regard to persons who are likely to be affected and should be limited so as not to have a major negative impact on business competitiveness.'.

I am asked to inform the Committee that there has been a typographical error in the printing of amendment No. 13. It should read ''functions arising under sections 307 to 315 of this Act'', not ''307 and 315 of this Act''.

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Mr. Whittingdale: I do not want to spend too long on this, but it is undoubtedly true that the content board will take on responsibility for important matters that are likely to generate a lot of public controversy and interest. There is some concern that the boundaries of the content board should be properly defined.

Amendment No. 148 would address the worry that businesses overseen by Ofcom may face a double jeopardy. If Ofcom delegates a function to the content board, it may also be considered and perhaps overruled by the main board. Clearly, the main board must have the ultimate responsibility. I am not suggesting that it should not have such power. I hope that the Minister accepts that some businesses subject to oversight by Ofcom may make their case to the content board, which is given immediate responsibility, only to find that the main board will concurrently exercise judgment. The amendment is designed to flag up the concern about businesses facing a double jeopardy. Will the Minister reassure me about such matters?

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Amendment No. 61 is concerned about decisions that are likely to have a significant impact on various businesses. Businesses should be properly consulted and there should be no chance of the content board overreaching the powers that have been delegated to it. The Joint Committee outlined the need for further clarification of the responsibilities of the content board, but the Government said that they expected Ofcom to provide a clear statement about the board's role. We consider that that is insufficient and leaves open the possibility for arbitrary and non-transparent exercise of powers. The amendment would ensure that the content board is not able to make decisions that could have untoward and negative repercussions on companies that use content as an integral part of their commercial service offerings. Will the Minister consider that and provide reassurances for businesses that will be affected by the deliberations of the content board?

The Chairman: Before we start the debate, I must inform members of the Committee that this group of amendments, together with amendments Nos. 36 and 37, which we shall come to next, broadly embrace the content of the clause. I invite hon. Members to raise issues now rather than later.

Mr. Lansley: I can be reasonably brief. There was a difference of view between the Government and the Joint Committee about whether we should not only specify which provisions should be the responsibility of the content board, but provide executive and determinative responsibility for the content board when clarifying its functions. I understood from the Government's response that to do so would alienate the legal responsibility from Ofcom itself, and be undesirable. The amendment is not drafted in the same form as the Joint Committee's view, but it would provide greater clarity about the functions of the content board is doing, something that the Joint Committee wanted.

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The Minister may say that the amendment would is repetitious because some of the provisions of clauses 307 to 315 are comprised within the language of clause 12(2)(a). None the less, the amendment would make clear to those who are considering the role of the content board the extent of its remit. It would be open to Ofcom to vary from that remit, but the powers of the content board would be set in a clear framework.

 

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Prepared 12 December 2002