Clause 42 - Directions relating to
Traffic Management Bill
3:30 pm
Mr Brian White (North East Milton Keynes, Labour)
I apologise to my hon. Friend the Minister for reading John Grisham at Christmas and being tempted down the route of examining contractual issues. Having had discussions with a number of companies about broadband, one of the things that they pointed out about the Bill is that there is no protection for contractual work to provide and maintain a service. Many of the utility companies, particularly the newer ones, have contracts with customers to supply services on strict delivery time scales with penalties applying, and so on. The concern is where either there are long-term contracts that have already been entered into, or where there are penalties involved, and whether the operator of the scheme will unduly enforce penalties. In other words, I am seeking an understanding from my hon. Friend that the operation of permit schemes, or of various other statutory schemes, will not result in penalties for operating companies arising from circumstances that are outside of their control. If the problem is their fault, that is fine—they have control and can take measures to avoid any problems—but if the problem emerges as a direct result of factors outside the company's control, they might feel that there is an issue that my hon. Friend could address. I will not push the amendment to a vote, but I would seek my hon. Friend's assurances on these points.