Digital Economy Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Lords at 5:15 pm on 31 January 2017.

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Photo of Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom Conservative 5:15, 31 January 2017

My Lords, I will address the House on Amendment 5, in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Mendelsohn. We all want to prevent digital exclusion and this is clearly an admirable way of attempting to do so. But the noble Lord suggests that,

“any excess costs … shall not be paid by users of communication service providers”.

So those excess costs need to be paid, presumably by someone other than any of the users of communications service providers. I wonder whether this amendment might be strengthened if it were to set out by whom those excess costs should be paid.