Clause 7 - Short title, commencement and extent
Office of Communications Bill [Lords]
5:00 pm
Mrs Anne McIntosh (Vale of York, Conservative)
I am happy to accept your invitation to have only one debate, Mr. Gale, and have a clause stand part debate now. I wish to refer only to this paragraph.
The explanatory notes state:
By adding to the existing regulators' statutory functions, the Bill will allow existing regulators to recover a proportion of the establishment cost from the communications sector. These powers will mean that the net cost to public expenditure—
I presume that that means the taxpayer—
will be significantly less than the overall gross cost of the practical transition.
I wish to allude to the remarks that the Minister made when concluding the last debate. Being a lawyer, financial matters do not come easily to me. He clearly stated, as I think the Committee was happy to accept, that there will be a cost to the taxpayer.