Digital Britain outlines the Government's strategic vision for ensuring that the UK is at the leading edge of the global digital economy.
The factsheets area on the Digital Economy Bill has been updated with new content, including Internet Domain Registries (PDF) and further details around Copyright (PDF). We’ve also created a ‘Letters’ area that will be updated with letters to parliamentarians as the Bill is debated in Parliament.
It’s been a busy ten days since our last post, and we thought this would be a good opportunity for a final update before 2010.
The main thing that has been keeping us busy has been preparation for Committee – we now have dates for four days in Committee.
As is the custom with Bills, we’ve been receiving a series of amendments from peers who want to hear more about the Government’s thinking behind the Bill. We received 94 new amendments last night, bringing us to a total of 237. The amendments tabled thus far are here; more information about amendments can be found here.
Parliamentary Recess having now officially begun, we’ll be back in the New Year with more updates. Until then, season’s greetings or, as they say across the pond, “Happy holidays!”
As mentioned, last week the Bill was read for a second time in the House of Lords – see the Hansard record for the full transcript here.
And now without further ado, we’re pressing on to the next stage – the first Committee session is scheduled for the 6th of January, as a Committee of the Whole House. For more about how Committee Stage works, please see Parliament’s guide here.
A quick update (we’re all hard at work this end) – the Bill’s Second Reading debate in the House of Lords will take place on Wednesday, currently scheduled to start at around 3.30 pm.
For those unfamiliar with Parliamentary procedures, more information about Second Reading debates can be found here. (And for the especially interested, the debate will be live on Parliament TV.)
For recent coverage of the Parliamentary passage of the Bill, you might be interested in the coverage of last week’s debates on the Queen’s Speech in the House of Lords (video | Hansard).
We’ll be back with more after Second Reading.
(Update: Bill now read for a second time in the House of Lords – ‘a wide-ranging discussion was held’, as they say in Parliament. The Hansard record of the debate is up on the Parliament website here.)
Hi! This is an update from the Digital Economy Bill team. On Wednesday, the Queen’s Speech confirmed that the Digital Economy Bill will be part of the Government’s programme for this session of Parliament – the one that takes us to the next General Election.
Today, the Bill is published. It is made up of the actions in the Digital Britain Final Report that need primary legislation. That means it covers a really wide range of areas – from digital radio, to copyright reform, to spectrum, and then some – all focused on supporting the nation’s digital future. But it doesn’t deal with those things that didn’t need primary legislation, such as broadband and local newspapers. And, it doesn’t deal with the Next Generation Levy, which will be in the Finance Bill 2010.
Stephen Timms introduces the Bill (Biography)
We think the Bill does some really important things, helping businesses and consumers to make the most of the ‘digital economy’ – the creative industries, digital communications, and public service broadcasting. We want people to understand the Bill. Understandably there will be a wide range of views – and we’ve certainly had some lively responses to our consultations on some of the issues. There has already been a lot of debate over what the Bill – it’s more than just unlawful file sharing and regional news. So how can we answer your questions on the Bill? We’d suggest, as a first port of call, the factsheets we’ve written to explain the key points on each area.
We’re looking forward to Parliament’s debates and discussions around the Bill. We hope you’ll find this a useful resource – and if we can help, please leave a comment.
