Clause 95 - Confirmation of directions under s. 94
Communications Bill
4:30 pm
Mr Stephen Timms (Minister of State (e-Commerce & Competitiveness), Department of Trade and Industry; East Ham, Labour)
A happy new year to you, Mr. Gale, and to all Committee members.
I have listened with interest to the case that the hon. Member for Blaby (Mr. Robathan) made for substituting the word ''a'' for word ''the''. That would give Ofcom the opportunity to be able, when confirming a direction, to modify it as an alternative to withdrawing it. One can see the attractions of doing that. However, the scope of the urgent directions in clause 94 is deliberately narrow. That provision is supposed to be used only in urgent cases. It is right that Ofcom should be able to confirm the original direction only if it found that a contravention had occurred and it was justified in giving the direction in the first place.
Clauses 94 and 95 are not intended to replace the normal enforcement procedures that are set out in clauses 91 to 93 and 96 to 99. It is intended that
clauses 94 and 95 should be used in conjunction with those other procedures. Ofcom might determine, following an investigation, that it was not justified in giving a direction under clause 94. That does not mean, however, that Ofcom could not continue enforcement action in accordance with the normal enforcement procedures if it chose to do something different from what was proposed in a direction.
We do not want the power to be used too liberally. It is very tightly drawn and we need Ofcom to get it right or not use it at all and use the conventional procedures that are available. That provides an important protection for the companies. On that basis, and having given some thought to what is an interesting and significant amendment, I hope that the Committee will accept that the existing wording of the clause is the right one.