Clause 87 - Conditions about regulation of services etc. for end-users
Communications Bill
9:15 am
Mr John Whittingdale (Maldon and East Chelmsford, Conservative)
I shall be brief. I may be going down the same unproductive road that my hon. Friend the Member for Ryedale tried to take a few moments ago by seeking to explore with the Minister the circumstances in which this clause might be put into effect.
Ofcom will have very wide-ranging and extensive powers. Clause 87 deals with the services market for end users of public electronic communications services, and it gives additional powers to Ofcom where the access-related conditions and the significant market power conditions that previous clauses provide to it are insufficient to allow it to perform its duty under clause 4, which is the obligation to ensure that European Community requirements are met.
There is already concern about the extent of the regulator's powers, but this clause seems to give it almost limitless powers. There is the safeguard, which we referred to in our discussion of the previous clause, which is that notification has to be given to the European Commission—which, presumably, is able to say that this or that goes beyond the requirements of the directive, or to prevent Ofcom from acting in a certain way. Can the Minister tell us what circumstances he envisages might arise that would lead to the implementation of the powers in the clause?