Clause 5 - Winding up of OFCOM on abandonment etc.
Office of Communications Bill [Lords]
4:30 pm
Mr Michael Fabricant (Lichfield, Conservative)
I support the amendment because it would help to bring accountability back to the House of Commons. The explanatory notes to the Bill state that clause 5 allows the Secretary of State to wind up Ofcom at any time, but if that happens after 2003, she has a duty to lay a draft order before Parliament. We have heard that there is doubt about the extent and powers of the shell organisation of Ofcom and that people will be seconded to it from the existing regulators, but we do not know how long the shell Ofcom will exist because it is not clear when the communications Bill will receive Royal Assent. For that reason, I suggest that ''the end of 2003'' is an arbitrary date. In any event, there should be full consideration by a Committee, as the Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport recommended.
I do not know whether my hon. Friend the Member for Vale of York (Miss McIntosh) will press amendment No. 59 to a Division, but it is right and proper that it should at least be discussed as a probing
amendment. I shall be interested to hear, yet again, what the Minister says. He will be aware of the Select Committee's recommendation that there should be full accountability to Parliament. However, I shall speak at greater length on this when we come to the debate on clause stand part.