Clause 5 - Winding up of OFCOM on abandonment etc.of proposals
Office of Communications Bill [Lords]
12:45 pm
Mrs Anne McIntosh (Vale of York, Conservative)
The purpose of amendment No. 59 is to add to subsection (1) a provision that before the Secretary of State can decide that it is necessary to wind up Ofcom there should be
''consultation with and consideration by a Joint Committee of both Houses of Parliament.''
Such an abandonment or modification of relevant proposals on the regulation of communications would be due to the Government failing to produce the main communications Bill either before or after 14 April, or whatever date they choose. Should the circumstances in which the Secretary of State deems it unnecessary for Ofcom to continue to exist arise, the Government may by order wind up and dissolve Ofcom.
The Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport believed most fervently that Ofcom, even in its transitional phase, should be fully accountable to both Houses of Parliament. What the best vehicle for such accountability would be is debatable, and we have debated it elsewhere. The reason why the Opposition believe that it is right and proper that there should be an alternative to a Select Committee of either this House or the other place is that we were told by the Minister that there would be a pre-legislative scrutiny committee, which would be a Joint Committee of both
Houses of Parliament. The duty of a Joint Committee on pre-legislative scrutiny should be to monitor the way in which Ofcom is set up.
Perhaps clause 5 could be described as a sunset clause. Our attempt to insert a sunset provision failed miserably through lack of support, even though I moved it vigorously--