Clause 102 - Application of the electronic communications
Communications Bill
5:45 pm
Mr Richard Allan (Sheffield, Hallam, Liberal Democrat)
The hon. Gentleman makes his own point. I am not familiar with the details of why agreements were not reached in that case. The distinction is really between whether anyone should have powers under the electronic communications code and whether additional powers should be conferred on them to introduce new infrastructure. It is not about whether commercial agreements can be reached between people who own sites and those who wish to introduce new infrastructure. Another set of questions is contained in that issue.
The legal status of codes of practice is another key issue. The mobile phone operators have been trying to overcome resistance to some of their current activities under the telecommunications code by conforming to a code of practice. They believe that their roll-out of infrastructure will be more acceptable to the public because they are considering some issues on an area-wide basis, including the possibility of sharing. As for people who dig up the roads, it is important to note that local authorities carrying out roadworks are worse offenders than telecoms operators. Telecoms operators often get the blame, but they are not the biggest offenders in terms of hours lost—they tend to get in and out fast and they try to conform to codes of practice.
If we are trying to deregulate, perhaps some of the compliance management, with a condition to allow preferential access to land to install infrastructure, should contain some recognition of where operators
have tried to do that properly and have adopted codes of practice. There should be some relationship between such good behaviour and the application of the electronic communications code. I hope that the Minister will elaborate on some of those points.