Clause 75 - Market power determinations
Communications Bill
6:15 pm
Mr Stephen Timms (Minister of State (e-Commerce & Competitiveness), Department of Trade and Industry; East Ham, Labour)
Let me comment on the specific terms of the amendment moved by the hon. Member for Blaby (Mr. Robathan). First, however, I apologise to you, Mr. Atkinson, and to the Committee for my late arrival. I am pleased to find you looking after the Committee.
There are a number of examples, rather like the one given by the hon. Gentleman, of the words in a Bill being not quite the same as those in a directive. That is because the conventions and the principles of interpretation of UK law are not the same as those for European Community law. It is not always possible to use the literal words of the directives in order to obtain the intended effect. I put it to the hon. Member for Blaby and the Committee that it is not sensible simply to copy the text of directives into UK
legislation. The term ''utmost account'', which the amendments would add to the Bill, is not used in UK legislation. We have done the right thing by using a term that is more conventional in UK law than the term in the directives.
I would also make the point to the hon. Member for Blaby that the wording is a little different from the wording in the draft Bill, which follows from comments that were made by the Joint Committee. The draft Bill contained the phrase ''have regard'', and we have gone further. The Joint Committee made a fair point that we needed to change the form of words in order to reflect the directive in the Bill. The form of words on the face of the Bill achieves that and it would not be sensible to use the precise words of the directive.