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At Report Stage in the House of Lords, a new clause 17 (now 18) was inserted into the Bill by Opposition amendment. At Third Reading Government committed to bring forward a replacement clause that ultimately achieves the same effect, while addressing the concerns expressed regarding the current clause.
The Government is now publishing its draft replacement clause 18 . Lord Mandelson has written to Jeremy Hunt and Don Foster setting out Government’s concerns with the current clause and explaining the draft amendment.
The Government proposes to introduce this amendment immediately after Second Reading in the House of Commons. The Government believes that the amendment delivers the effect that the House of Lords wanted to achieve when it voted clause 18 into the Bill, but in a way that takes account of the legal and other concerns to which the clause gives rise.
The Oxford Internet Institute website on developing a methodology for costing digital inclusion is now up and running. The online consultation was commissioned by the National Audit Office to inform its understanding of the evidence base on the costs and benefits of digital inclusion activities. It can be found here:
Yesterday the Digital Economy Bill completed Third Reading in the House of Lords; it has therefore now completed all Lords stages. The official record is here. We now move to the House of Commons. The next significant stage there is Second Reading – date to be confirmed.
Technological advances are transforming both our ecomomy and society and it’s vital that everyone in the UK has the opportunity to get online and benefit from these advances.
The speech follows the Government’s announcement of a National Digital Participation Plan, which aims to get 60% of those people not online, online by March 2014. This equates to 7.5m people.
You can read the full transcript of the speech at the BIS speeches page.
